Julian Day 2453933
Today requires
a past
The riverside road
closed, silent
& utterly still for the first time
in who knows
how long
the house
slowly pulled
from origin A
to destination B, stopping for the night
at the exact point between us
& the river
A new view – all gables
& dormers – inserted into
the old, the river
displaced
this strategy
assembled here, this action
having weight
& many bits
of order
this
stuff of periods
~ Gil McElroy
This poem is from an ongoing, open-ended cycle of poems collectively entitled “The Julian Days”. The series is based on a system of dating events that is essentially the cumulative count of days that have passed since January 1, 4713 BCE. Each of the poems is thus numerically titled, indicating the day on which the poem was written. Sections of “The Julian Days” have appeared in Gil McElroy’s three books, Dream Pool Essays, NonZero Definitions, and Last Scatering Surfaces (all from Talonbooks).
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