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From: Vol.06 N.01 – The Everywhere of Things

Equinox

by Kathryn Hummel

After Louise Glück

 

At a certain hour today, I learned of allision.

Obsolete now, fixed to maritime law:

one ship runs upon another

resisting the blurred tread of the ocean.

Even against progression, the act is accurate;

yielding: a feint straight line.

 

Along this seamless form runs the current of

a somatic physics,

as though the event of interaction between two objects

finds gratifying the lock of their forces.

 

Whatever is produced is in excess,

a residue seen without feeling.

 

We could not defend a lack of movement if we tried—

such stillness, so well-timed

not even late, really quite early?

Why should we be made to remember

the instant our data dissatisfies.

The act of alliding; of impact, striking the static.

It disturbs the mercury coming to rest against our faces.

It takes energy to misalign.

Published: January 2019
Kathryn Hummel

is a writer and researcher. Her diverse creative and scholarly works have been published / presented / translated / anthologised / recognised around the world. Her fifth book of poems is forthcoming with Singapore’s Math Paper Press and her sixth and seventh with London’s Prote(s)xt Books. Currently, Kathryn is the non-fiction and travel writing editor for Verity La. More info @ kathrynhummel.com

An Australian and international
journal of ecopoetry and ecopoetics.

Plumwood Mountain Journal is created on the unceded lands of the Gadigal and Wangal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and to elders past, present and future. We also acknowledge all traditional custodians of the lands this journal reaches.

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