Rae Armantrout

Veil

The doll told me  
to exist.
 
It said, “Hypnotize yourself.”
 
It said time would be  
transfixed.
 
                    *
 
Now the optimist
 
sees an oak  
shiver
 
and a girl whiz by  
on a bicycle
 
with a sense of pleasurable  
suspense.
 
She budgets herself  
with leafy
 
prestidigitation.
 
I too
am a segmentalist.
 
                    *
 
But I’ve dropped  
more than an armful
 
of groceries or books
 
downstairs
into a train station.
 
An acquaintance says  
she colors her hair
 
so people will help her  
when this happens.
 
To refute her argument,  
I must wake up
 
and remember my hair’s  
already dyed.
 
                    *
 
As a mentalist,  
I must suffer
 
lapses
 
then repeat myself  
in a blind trial.
 
I must write  
punchlines only I  
can hear
 
and only after  
I’ve passed on
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