face in jar by door

rice still on the stone or memory of it or no difference now — white flecks bone flecks thought flecks — eleanor (is that right still eleanor?) bending not bending already bent always bent hands moving before the idea of hands arrives gathering what was left after something bright passed through and did not stay — wedding yes but only the after of it the echo already gone before it can be heard — and the aisle long longer than it should be stretching with each step or no steps only the sense of moving without distance —

face by the door in the jar no not a jar something like one something that holds what must be worn lifted each morning or each moment there is no morning only intervals — put it on or it puts itself on — window waiting always waiting though for what for whom question without edge — who is it for becomes only for is it for who is it and then just is it and then nothing but the shape of waiting pressing outward —

and somewhere the scratching not separate not elsewhere same air same dimness folding inward — pen moving father mckenzie (name written before the man exists or after) words forming unforming sentence beginning already ending before the middle arrives — sermon but no ear no near no distance closed loop of saying hearing not hearing — paper filling with marks that refuse to remain marks sliding off into the space between thoughts —

thread through cloth through night through the thin idea of purpose — in and out in and out no beginning stitch no final knot — sock heel worn like the mind worn thin places mended not mended — does it matter who wears it who sees it question dissolves before it completes care without object object without care — motion continues because stopping would require a boundary and there are none —

eleanor at the window or in the aisle or already beneath the ground time folding — face slipping not slipping forgotten remembered all at once — no one comes near means near has no meaning distance collapses inward everything touching nothing touching — her name said once maybe twice or imagined being said which is the same now —

earth closing or already closed church holding or already empty father hands brushing dirt from skin from thought from something that does not leave — gesture repeating without completion brushing brushing never clean never finished — no one saved becomes no one becomes saved becomes nothing becomes —

all the lonely people but the words fracture all a lone the riverrun, past eve and adam’s — a way a lone a last a loved a long the — all the people slipping between syllables — where do they come from becomes where do they come becomes where do they becomes where — question eating itself leaving only the motion of asking without sound —

and still rice or memory of rice or the idea that something was scattered and must be gathered though it never diminishes never increases — hands moving window waiting pen scratching thread passing earth closing — all at once not sequence not cause — no one saved everything continuing without witness without edge without end — belonging dissolving before it can form the word long before it can mean — what does he care —

all lonely people

belong where