SEEN FROM A DISTANCE the poems he has forgotten the work he has not done the times he stayed in the other room defiance as the tailend of a gesture of revulsion from shame life lived in a sense of rescuing others from their disasters while his own kept burning behind him falling down flooding compassion as an extension of wreckage he found an odd straight line to walk by looking in a mirror attempted to exercise control by saving his shoes till they were falling apart when he heard the flapping he knew the length of his stride when the water came through he was satisfied with his immersion in the world not saying this right effort not always complete something left behind for others to use is his I mean was given away