Emission Statement

In this infinite messiness
Of finite messes, the ocean,
That is, of big and little waves,

The lives of the bodies in mind
And the mind in all its bodies
Pile up into rollers sometimes,

And it’s true that a drowned coast’s surf
Carving away at concave cliffs
Differs from the Sargasso Sea

Napping through brutal, long doldrums,
But both extremes are persistent,
Persistently self-similar,

The life of mind in a body,
The life of the body in mind.
They chew at each other—waves, waves—

And if the body, as it seeps,
Seems messier, invasive mind
Keeps more rot in when it stagnates.

Sometimes you’re battered by desire,
Sometimes you float for lack of it,
Slowly, wishing weather would change—

The hedonists in the breakers
And the monks on bare, parched decks—all
Small pulsings of more or less mess.