A Materialist Dialectic (An Americanized Foreword)

Taking away your
                                 silver dower,
Show me now the sandwiches.
Show me
                   working electricity.

And tell me no fantasy
                                        lurking
In the factual, some magical
          geometry. For

Is there any way to avoid, escape
          our arrival
At the knowledge that we
          are all each
                              a composite of atoms

That will later change into another?

We’re . . .
          are living in the finest

Hours, showing us
All the flowers,
Showing us
All these structures . . .

Telling us all energy
Functions with a marginal
Dependency—i.e., in wavering
Religiosities/
                    And is there—

Are there really ways of enhancing . . .
Is there any truth in “romance” or
Or . . . no survival really
From the knowledge

That we
                are all

Each a composite of atoms
That’ll later turn into another!

   Well, dowry-giver, . . . you gave me fine containers of wine
        and meat.
     Then we changed cars to one with another color:
          and how can I forget the quest of-
               of making it through

                                        the present way of Asian dragons?

               where Mechanics, Science, and other labels,

                                 have still only

                                 gone as far

                                 as one’s

                                 desire

                                 could

                                 see.

—23 May 1988