--- title: No nothing genre: verse id: no-nothing toc: "No nothing" project: title: Autocento of the breakfast table class: autocento ... | While [swimming in the river][] | I saw [underneath it a river][] | of stars. Only there was no | river: it was noon. You can | say the sun is a river; you | can argue the stars back it | like [shirts behind a closet][] | door; you can say [the earth][] | holds us up with its weight | or that it means well or it | means anything. | There is no | closet, [nor door][]; there are | no shirts hanging anywhere. | There is no false wall that | leads deep into the earth's | bowels, [growing warmer][] with | each step. Warmth as a con- | cept has ceased to make any | sense. In contraposition to | cold, it might, but cold as | well [stepped out][] last night | and hasn't returned. | Last I | heard, it went out swimming | and [might've drowned][]. Trees | were the pallbearers at the | funeral, the train was long | and wailful, there was much | [wailing and gnashing][] of all | teeth--though there were no | teeth, no train, no funeral | or prayer or trees at all-- | nor a [river underneath][] any- | thing. There was nothing to | be underneath anymore. | Look | around, and tell me you see | something. Look around, and | tell me something that I do | not know. I know, more than | anything, that the world is | always ending. Behind that, | there is nothing, save that | there is no nothing either. | | Nothing somehow still turns | and flows past us, past all | time and beyond it, a river | returning, to its forgotten | origins deep within itself. [swimming in the river]: father.html [shirts behind a closet]: lovessong.html [the earth]: big-dipper.html [nor door]: amber-alert.html [growing warmer]: real-writer.html [stepped out]: i-think-its-you.html [might've drowned]: in-bed.html [wailing and gnashing]: http://biblehub.com/luke/13-28.htm [river underneath]: howtoread.html [underneath it a river]: music-433.html