Poem Beginning with a Line from C. K. Williams

Poem Beginning with a Line from C. K. Williams

Having to know for both of us
that everything ends,
I halve the all I know
and then halve it again
to quarters tilted against
the shuttered pane
on the small shelf reserved
for your choosing.
And if that is not enough,
the quarters split to eighths,
each carrying a scrap
of the other, a bit of
chipped black paint,
small nicks and gouges
and fillings-in.
But still, lost in oblivion
you refuse to know
though all my knowing
is laid out before you in
infinitesimally small bits—
the mosaic of little pulsings
like shards of stained glass
scattered on a bench
before the window is dreamed of.