“Presage” poem by Mo Lawrence

TGS poetry 11


poem by Mo Lawrence

I woke and wondered how to go about
pronouncing presage.

In this, I pronounced
the wondering, but could not

pronounce the presage.
In this, presage was palimpsest:

a Thing made Things in chord.
Can the poem presage if I

cannot not muck the meter?
Yes: It can presage a decline.

And so we decline. Presage.
Presage. Presage. A Thing

made Things in chord.
I know this to be old song

for a man with better glasses:
Palimpsest declines to presage,

presaging capital D Decline.
But would it muck the meter, now,

to correct to correctest presage?
Say Words unmuck to Word.

Say Things make Thing from chord.
Say presage declines to presage.

Say Presage’s presage’s palimpsest
declines to presage a Decline.

I wake and wonder how to go about