Cardinal Ideograms

written by


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  A mouth.  Can blow or breathe,
  be a funnel, or Hello.

  A grass blade or a cut.

  A question seated.  And a proud
  bird's neck.

  Shallow mitten for two-fingered hand.

  Three-cornered hut
  on one stilt.  Sometimes built
  so the roof gapes.

  A policeman.  Polite.
  Wearing visored cap.

  O unrolling,
  tape of ambiguous length
  on which is written the mystery
  of everything curly.

  A step,
  detached from its stair.

  The universe in diagram:
  A cosmic hourglass.
  (Note enigmatic shape,
  absence of any value of origin,
  how end overlaps beginning.)
  Unknotted like a shoelace
  and whipped back and forth,
  can serve as a model of time.

  Lorgnette for the right eye.
  In England or if you are Alice
  the stem is on the left.

  A grass blade or a cut
  companioned by a mouth.
  Open?  Open.  Shut?  Shut.

© May Swenson