{marginalia} a limited body of infractions

the perils of displaying what one considers safe / no
touching allowed, as one should never

acknowledge an empty space / contains / a faint

buzz of light, sacrifices made for security, what one
lies trying to maintain / through corridors or

mornings roam / otherwise a gallery / objects hung
from my body and in the most innocuous way a thing

forbidden could be dangerous, kissing the latest

installation or falling from the nearest passing
stranger / provocative, colorful crimes / I simply

wanted to hide / echoes / but they worry so

much about hitting things, the damage to be done
by an errant mannerism confined can be comforting

or / an array of canvas, intuitions one can read

in a palm: the finer things a musician might handle
institutional sound as hammering projected

on a screen, what one can hold in a palm / I've four
cards and a receipt to write on / if I learned

to dismantle conformity, who would ever know


Valerie Witte