Erika Meitner

THIS VOLATILE TAXONOMY

after Yve-Alain Bois & Rosalind E. Krauss

the categories we locate
ourselves in are porous:
pulse / horizontality / base
materialism / entropy—
      the infinite un-
speakableness of the body
written in blood, excreta,
mucous membranes, pubic
hair: this type of alteration
(I am spotting) (I am unsure
of my direction) (I look at
my phone often) there is
no question of exhaustive-
ness (but we are exhausted
since) there are bodies that
have come from our bodies
& depend on (our bodies)
what is the answer to the un-
asked questions / there are
so many of them (something
we can find in lost space)
(something tucked) some-
thing parallel (my head
beneath yr arm & resting
on yr chest) the impassability
of the body’s own frontier
(skin’s the limit—& then)
(when you enter me) a line
or border separating two
countries (beyond which
lies wilderness) I am the un-
tamed thing, the weed or
rendering: but how could
we have presented [a happening]
without casting it in concrete?
how could we have shown
[an infinite overproduction]
without instantly betraying
or limiting it? (we are parents)
(we have lost so many things)

ERIKA MEITNER is the author of five books of poems, including Holy Moly Carry Me (BOA Editions), winner of the 2018 National Jewish Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. She is currently an associate professor of English and the creative writing programs director at Virginia Tech.