space

space is an encompassing term;

it wraps around,

around the pearl made of crying little clams,

around the pearls tossed before swine, around the moon, who can be

a little

                             lonely

watching the children so frightened of the dark that they never look to see the glow.

space is the twenty-cent cheap necklace that immigrant mothers wear

but at one point or another,

when the limit no longer exists, back bent to infinity,

the string on the necklace will snap

and the pearls (the space) will scatter across the bleached tiles,

only to blend in with the color of muteness.

negative space is not a recognized concept;

we see positive space,

people, places, things taking up volume

all made of matter, neither created, nor destroyed,

just transferred from form to form, roaming to find a host called home . 

                             (but does that even matter?)

we do not see the island in the curve of arm on hip

or the gaps between fingers missing significant others.

we do not see that the sunset goes up forty-four times,

tracing not the little prince, single inhabitant of his planet,

but the emptiness around him.

space is a filled emptiness.

it is.

a body gives her all, transfers all her matter into

people, places, things cranking up the volume

black holes consuming all that ever could’ve mattered at this zero point

so that sound swallows the space whole, so that a body loses itself,

becomes a no

                                body

in the blur of noise that come from the mouths

of a people who muffle their screams with scarves.

the no body trembles

its zipper mouth swinging in the gusts of the sandstorm made out of clam tears.

trust me when I say--

i am physically incapable of saying things

that take up space the way words are supposed to,

that i’ll point out shapes and colors so you can look between the lines,

see the absence of things that so clearly defines what mattered, like the:

silhouette of an alone moon

seeds sewn out of dreams under pig hooves

clams tucked into the sand of tourist beaches

the meaning to this poem