From “The Shore,” a manuscript in progress. For Saba Mahmood.

Then I gave it up
I gave up thinking that the song I heard was the song of the world
I gave up lyric, gave up reverie, I gave up aesthesis –
I left my notebook on the park bench open with its pages riffling
      I kept my head down
I said ok fine Elon Musk is the most important person on the planet
I did not read “Ozymandias”
But like that monument I started to crumble
Down I fell, down into earth, down into its deep…