right hand pointing

M a r c   V i n c e n z

Parentheses Not Closed

             —for Andrei Codrescu

Are you conscious

of what is already living, amigo?

or are you one of those

who only sees the living dead?

Your mother always said—

and she was a lover of Eliot—

words may be unbounded,

but emotions are in the head.

How many fires did you ignite

in a lifetime? And just how many

did you put out, stomping the last

embers into the earth and dust?

The poetry lesson

is not one

for the blind, says Andrei;

parentheses are never totally closed.