M L Williams – Aphasia

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Aphaisa, poems by M L Williams

M. L. Williams is author of Other Medicines and co-editor of How Much Earth: The Fresno Poets. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in many journals and anthologies, including most recently Western Humanities Review, Miramar, The Journal of Florida Studies, The Cortland Review, Stone, River, Sky, and Clash by Night. He teaches creative writing and contemporary literature at Valdosta State University.


Prattle

Then what thought is, for example, expressed by the sentence, ‘It is raining”?—
Philosophical Investigations, 501

“It is raining,” you say
your dog in the cage
under the oak, the door
open no it is latched
the bichon frise, no the
basenji cannot bark
it scratches paws
at the wire under
sweetgum no the borzoi
shudders the wet
coat the ink
bleeds the cage
a book under
bristlecone the
whimper not
a thought it is
raining the warm
sky pours in
the image your
mudi shaking
is raining cypress
knees the empty
crate in your
eyes I see it
and turn around
the car


Aphasia

“For what is hidden, for example, is of no interest to us.”
Philosophical Investigations 126

Closed eyes kill the aura
that cuts off half the hand
but not the sparking outline
amoebic or a colleague
points out an impolitic
decision you start
a phrase to answer you
start a phrase start to
you are having a stroke
she says no you can still say
no you can say
the unsayable that
my eyes open halo


© M L Williams

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