Within these Departments there are Divisions being led by General Managers
but ought the Bethlehem to which we slouch
be not Division but UNITY,
not Department but ARRIVEMENT,
not a Generality of Management but AN EXQUISITE SPECIFICITY
in which we become both INFINITELY NUMEROUS and yet
COMPLETELY SINGULAR, at last
PERFECTLY OURSELVES,
in a place where EVERYONE
gets a Good Pen, the milk not turned to CHEESE in the night,
the fruit bowl FREE of flies, a place where all
the organic decaf coffee pods CANNOT be missing
for the SECOND TIME this month for our knowledge
is held ENTIRELY IN COMMON, PERVASIVE
AS SCENT, where the plants FLOURISH PLUSHLY,
the underpants and cigarettes fall NOT
from the balconies of apartments above
upon the OUTDOOR BREAKOUT AREA,
indeed where the answers
to OUR PREVIOUS THREE EMAILS are known through
THE VERY AIR ITSELF,
which is sweet for it smells of us and WE ARE SWEET,
this air also being the precise correct
temperature for a REALLY VERY WIDE RANGE
of personal thermostatic preferences
AUGUST 23RD, 2021 / POETRY
Belinda Rule is a Melbourne poet. Her chapbook, The Things the Mind Sees Happen, Puncher & Wattmann/Slow Loris, was commended in the Anne Elder Award 2019. Her first full-length collection, Hyperbole, is due out in late 2021 with Recent Work Press. She tweets at @belindarule.