TARPAULIN SKY
Issue #14 Summer 2008
www.tarpaulinsky.com

CHRISTINE WERTHEIM
Prelude: A Memorial

The +|’ME of Re-Cognition

When we’re we born
our mother cried,
I looked like an angel.
When we’re we born our mother cried
She could not love what looked like her.

Perhaps I could already see
That she was there
not here.

But there were not yet words
to speak.
Then with Time
beginning came.

They say children will not crawl across an edge.
So stopped upon the void,
she would have screamed for an eternity.
But one already was,
and Nothing came instead.

Then +| me ripped through the void,
+-he-|-M-E, |-M-E, |-ME, |’M E,
in which she saw
tha-+ |’M mE,
is only here for now,
while she’s forever there.

In that moment
She determined to be.
Always in Time.
Me and her.
Here and there,
(the) Forever in all ways, present.

Nothing could have stopped
this determination.
Years later,
Nothing did.

Then the scream,
which had not come
came
the no+ ME, no+ ME, no+ ME, no+ ME,
as +| me (re) turned in the void.
(the) Forever in all ways without her.

And (the) | began again.

***********

+ |’me began again.

tw|ned
en-tw|ned around each other
tw|ned
entw|ned in the yearning space
tw|nned
en-tw|nned in duplicitous vo|ds
tw|nned
entw|nned before hour t|’me.

When we’re we born
my sister and e|e
+w|nned ‘n tangled
about our selves.

| remember finding myself
| remember the top of the stares.

My e|e looking
across the vo|ds
my e|e lightening
on her bright face.
A space and an |
a here and a there,
cleared by the point
of her
not being there.

Cleared by her being For-me (d)
(a) no-t-here.

Then the scream,
which had not come
came
the (k)no+’ME, (k)no+’ME, (k)no+’ME, (k)no+’ME,
as | (re) turned in the void.
(the) Forever in all ways without her.

And +|’Me began again.

***********

+ |’me begins again.

A ch|ld looks across a space
and sees its beloved
split.

|n-the-Density of HER being HERe (FOR-Me)
and the Light of this SPACE which is (a) NOT (her).

A ch|ld looks across a space
and feels its beloved
self split,

|n-the-Density of |t’s own obscure e|e
and the Light of the vO|dce which its (a) NOT (her).

But watt comes between these two?
watt comes between
here + a no-t-here ?
watt comes in the yearning (    )
formed by the (    ) ‘tween
the vo|dce and the e|e ?

***********

Christine Wertheim's book of poetics +|’me’S-pace was published by Les Figues Press in 2007. With Matias Viegenser, she co-organizes an annual conference: Séance (2004), Noulipo (2005), Impunities (2006), Feminaissance (2007), ArText (2008), and has co-edited two anthologies of contemporary experimental writing: Séance (Make Now Press, 2006), and noulipo (Les Figues Press, 2007). Christine also co-directs The Institute For Figuring, which organizes presentations and exhibitions on the intersections of art and science, recently at Machine Project, the MJT, and the Andy Warhol Foundation