Meditations, with an Image Borrowed from Félix González-Torres

Abstract

Meditations, with an Image Borrowed from Félix González-Torres Trevor Ketner (bio) Still yourself. Then, begin, in the hollow home of your breath,to open slowly, like a window overlooking a city, your bodywhich is a body in this room, tinctured with pale emotionbecause you are in it. You'll be visited by gauzeghost thoughts;let them pass. There are corners we build alone in the mind.Let them fall like Jericho—give them a song. Fall like Jericho given a songand still yourself. Stay in the hollow home of your breath;let each pass. There are corners we build in the mindthat open, like windows, onto a city that is now a bodybecause you are in it. You'll be covered in a gauze of thoughts,which is your body in this room, tinctured pale with emotion. Where is your body in this room? With pale emotionlet it fall like Jericho, which was given a songbecause you were in it. You'll be haunted by your thoughts,still being yourself, but stay in the hollow home of your breath,slowly open it like a window overlooking a city. Embodied,let it pass into the corners we dig like a mine. Let them pass, these corners in the home of the mindwhich is your body in this room, tinctured pale with light.Open, like a window overlooking a city, your body.Let it fall, like Jericho. Give it a long song.Still yourself to stay in the hollow home of your breath.Because you are in it, you'll be visited by your thoughts. [End Page 129] Because you are in it, you'll visit it. Your thoughts?Let them pass the corners in the mindthat are still yourself. Stay in the hollow home of your breathwhich is, your body in this room, a tincture. Emotionsfall, like Jericho, when given a songslowly opened like a window, like a body. Slowly open a window in the city of your body;be in it. Visit your gauzethoughts;let them fall like January snow in a song.Pass through the corners we carve in the mindthat tint the body in this room with light.Still within yourself, stay in the hollow home of your breath. Let songs, wrapped like candies, settle in a corner of your mind;open a window; unhaunt your thoughts—a motion inward: begin to hollow a home for your breath. [End Page 130] Trevor Ketner Trevor Ketner is the author of Major Arcana: Minneapolis, winner of the 2017 Burnside Review Chapbook Contest judged by Diane Seuss. Their poems have been or will be published in Best New Poets, Ninth Letter, West Branch, Pleiades, Diagram, Memorious, and elsewhere, and their essays and reviews can be found in Kenyon Review, Boston Review, Lambda Literary, and elsewhere. They hold an MFA from the University of Minnesota and have been awarded residencies at Vermont Studio Center and Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts. They live in Manhattan with their husband. Copyright © 2018 Middlebury College