[By any measure]

By any measure, it was endless

winter. Emulsions with

Then circled the lake like

This is it. This April will be

Inadequate sensitivity to green. I rose

early, erased for an hour

Silk-brush and ax

I'd like to think I'm a different person

latent image fading

around the edges and ears

Overall a tighter face

now. Is it so hard for you to understand

From the drop-down menu

In a cluster of eight poems, I selected

sleep, but could not

I decided to change everything

Composed entirely of stills

or fade into the trees

but could not

remember the dream

save for one brief shot

of a woman opening her eyes

Ari, pick up. I'm a different person

In a perfect world, this would be

April, or an associated concept

Green to the touch

several feet away

Copyright Credit: Ben Lerner, "’By any measure...’" from Mean Free Path. Copyright © 2010 by Ben Lerner. Reprinted by permission of Copper Canyon Press.

Source: Mean Free Path (Copper Canyon Press, 2010)