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Contents
3 Doppler Elegies
4 Mean Free Path
5 Doppler Elegies
About the Author
Books by Ben Lerner
Acknowledgments
Copyright
DEDICATION
For the distances collapsed.
For the figure
failed to humanize
the scale. For the work,
the work did nothing but invite us
to relate it to
the wall.
For I was a shopper in a dark
aisle.
For the mode of address
equal to the war
was silence, but we went on
celebrating doubleness.
For the city was polluted
with light, and the world,
warming.
For I was a fraud
in a field of poppies.
For the rain made little
affective adjustments
to the architecture.
For the architecture was a long
lecture lost on me, negative
mnemonics reflecting
weather
and reflecting
reflecting.
For I felt nothing,
which was cool,
totally cool with me.
For my blood was cola.
For my authority was small
involuntary muscles
in my face.
For I had had some work done
on my face.
For I was afraid
to turn
left at intersections.
For I was in a turning lane.
For I was signaling,
despite myself,
the will to change.
For I could not throw my voice
away.
For I had overslept,
for I had dressed
in layers for the long
dream ahead, the recurring
dream of waking with
alternate endings
she’d walk me through.
For Ariana.
For Ari.
MEAN FREE PATH
I finished the reading and looked up
Changed in the familiar ways. Now for a quiet place
To begin the forgetting. The little delays
Between sensations, the audible absence of rain
Take the place of objects. I have some questions
But they can wait. Waiting is the answer
I was looking for. Any subject will do
So long as it recedes. Hearing the echo
Of your own blood in the shell but picturing
The ocean is what I meant by
You startled me. I thought you were sleeping
In the traditional sense. I like looking
At anything under glass, especially
Glass. You called me. Like overheard
Dreams. I’m writing this one as a woman
Comfortable with failure. I promise I will never
But the predicate withered. If you are
Uncomfortable seeing this as portraiture
Close your eyes. No, you startled
Identical cities. How sad. Buy up the run
The unsigned copies are more valuable
I have read your essay about the new
Closure. My favorite parts I cannot follow
Surface effects. We moved to Canada
Without our knowledge. If it reciprocates the gaze
How is it pornography? Definitions crossed
With stars, the old closure, which reminds me
Wave to the cameras from the