Syntactics

Syntactics
For Ashley

1.
I am a disciple of existential grammar
of, “That(,) what you gotta do. . .”

We are the essential components of us
elemental to expression

I am all consonants
and you are the curvy parts of vowels
we meet at sometimes y sometimes

our time is syntax like the sorted-though beads on a rosary
our location in relation to each other
is marked punctuation
a comma for each foot, a period for each year

These are the
Ar
/tic
/u
/la
/tions
of
us

2.
The ordering of and relationship between the words and other structural elements in phrases and sentences arranges us

The exposition of or set of rules for producing grammatical structures according to the syntax of a language reveals who we are

We think with the part of logic that gives the rules that define which combinations of expressions in the logical system yield well-formed formulas

We are governed by the rules governing which statements and combinations of statements in a programming language will be acceptable to a compiler for this, for our language

We are the arrangement of any group of elements in a systematic or rule-based manner

3.
I am smiling because your smiling be-
cause you know
how much poets lie
hopefully, as much as they tell the truth

but to lie about being a solecist and malapropist
and not about everything else
is better
than telling the truth about that
and lying about the other stuff

The relationship between
relationships

of how words look on a page
lines on a grid
the pages make a book
in other words
parts make a whole

how your hand looks in mine
how you look lying across white bed sheets
how we appear and travel along in storefront glass / together
how we imagine being together
and how we fit in actuality

The relationship between
relationships

I write in italics
and you write in all caps
DON’T WRITE IN ITALICS
MAKE YOUR SENTENCE
SAY WHAT YOU WANT

DON’T CHEAT

and I shrug because I am the poet
what the fuck do you know
you are just the muse
just the thing on which the poet is completely dependant

that’s all

4.
This poem I wrote for you
because of you

Because you are a daughter of a man with
a corny sense of humor
and because
I make you laugh
and worry about you
when you fly home
and wring my mother’s hands
like my mothers does
when she’s worried about me

I have heard you say on more than one occasion
how unlucky
our child would be

but I think
our child would be lucky
for the same reasons