Partly. Rae Armantrout

this rock,

      its acrobatic performance

      of momentum

      run through

      to the point of

      distraction.

      2

      In this series,

      sleeper agents

      live our lives—

      some version of our lives—

      with (what might be)

      this difference:

      most of what they do

      is feigned,

      but not all.

      That’s what keeps us

      riveted.

       Divisor

      1

      How pairs

      of power lines

      hold gray

      interstates

      between them

      2

      List of ways

      the body

      befriends the body:

      strumming

      the left toes

      over the right

      as if;

      causing each finger

      to touch its mate

      and press.

      It’s a good thing

      the body’s

      split.

      The two sides

      can make up

      while the head

      goes on

      saying what it’s like

       Life’s Work

      1

      Did I say I was a creature

      of habit?

      I meant the opposite.

      I meant behavior

      is a pile of clothes

      I might or might not wear.

      Before all the sowing and reaping

      could go on for centuries,

      before the calendar,

      I must have been convinced

      that my movements

      were both mandated

      and blessed.

      2

      I’ve never been an old woman

      knitting by a fire,

      but I’ve played one

      in images

      where it meant being foolish

      or wise, a mistress

      of distraction’s

      indirection.

      To rock while entwining

      is life’s work,

      but I am reckless,

      restless

       The Difficulty

      This film, like many others,

      claims we’ll enjoy life

      now that we’ve come through

      difficulties, dangers

      so incredibly condensed

      that they must be over.

      If the hardship

      was undergone by others,

      we identified with them

      and, if the danger was survived

      by simpler life forms,

      they’re included in this moment

      when the credits roll

      and we don’t know

      when to stand

       The Ether

      We’re out

      past the end

      game where things

      get fuzzy,

      less thingy,

      though in past times

      we practiced

      precision

      concrete as a slot machine.

      But to be precise

      you need to stop

      a moment

      which turns out to be

      impracticable

      and besides

      speed is of the essence.

      Don’t worry.

      “Of” can take care

      of itself

      and it’s fine

      to say “essence”

      now that it’s understood

      to mean ether,

      a kind of filler

      made either

      of inattention

      or absorption

      somewhere near

      the Planck length

       What We Can Say

      1

      “The traumatized rats practiced excessive self-grooming.”

      Thinking is practice.

      The idea that we can improve

      is a form of self-grooming.

      Adjusting to the rapidly changing orientations

      of figures on a screen

      can feel like having a succession of ideas,

      each of which must be incorporated

      into our current attitude.

      To incorporate change without disorientation

      is to win.

      2

      “Ideas link things in novel ways.”

      We might say that music

      attempts to make time

      into space—visualizable, repeatable.

      (We may have said this previously.)

      Or we may say music

      attempts to make space into time

      so that between the current

      stances of the musicians

      there exists something like flow.

      But there is really no direction

      in comparison,

      only the desire

      that two entities

      become one,

      as if reduction in number

      were the purpose

      of