—Norman Fischer
What we want is a model of the universe
That includes everything leaving nothing out
Yet is completely different fresh unique holding nothing in
Yet is not strange exotic and does not make us feel
Read about in a magazine article with pictures
Yet it can’t be just another magazine article and it can’t
Be in a regular magazine this magazine will glow as it
To foretell the future cure bursitis get rich quick aphrodisiac
That we can talk to coyly we can droop our eyelids at
Plump our lower lips begin the sniffle
And it will pat our shoulders say “there there dear” grow
What we want is a model of the universe so complex we can
Which once in our possession becomes identified so
Household words the meaning of our doing and saying
An eternally living legacy around which all subsequent
What we want is a model of the universe that is better than
But our model of the universe is also better than the
Model of the universe of even our intimate friends
Although the fact of the matter is that no one but us really
Possesses a model of the universe it is our own little secret
However we write poems about it that strike others as
Infinitely suggestive and profound but since this makes us
We want a model of the universe that explains everything
Yet doesn’t take the mystery out of anything in fact adds
A model of the universe in which we appear never
We want a model of the universe in which we can always
Where all foreign languages are actually English
Though they never lose their ethnic charm
What we want is a model of the universe
Contiguous with the total shape of time
So that it neither begins nor ends is neither something nor
This poem therefore never ends and in which it never began
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—Medusa