ghazal: a version of “Insomnia. Homer”

"Seascape with ships," Theo van Doesburg, 1906.

                                                      after Agamben

insomnia, homer, canvas tight
half this list these ships this night

series of followlings cranes winsome
you lose some / takeoff crisp flight

white cranes a plane inclined to kingdom come
seasick and sweating heads named dynamite

wither whither ever whiter sans helen lonesome
navy line to troy, worth it this fistfight

a sea that dare not speak its name for scorn
a love that muffles and refracts my light

a message in a bottle, my crimson hypochondria
my cares my quiets / and a blindman’s

                                                      Osip Mandelstam, 1915

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