SELECT BODIES
We didn’t say it coming. Preoccupied
By interchangeable analogies (the jasmine
Blossom burdening the Avenues, plus several other factors)
We walked to the library, anxiously
Equipped. The afternoon
Swung on its tender, foreseeable hinge.
Commercial JASMINALDEHYDE is not extracted
From the living plant, but HEPTAN-1-OL.
Reacted with BENZALDEHYDE in the presence
Of basic catalysts, it is (like other
Aldehydes) subject to self-condensing.
[For contamination, flush eyes immediately.]
Were it not for the savings (planetary, financial)
Afforded by such non-euclidean vestibules, revolving
Doors would never be tolerated. Progress is
Vexatiously non-linear. Sooner or later one must take
A crack at it, or be
doomed
to eternal
recurrence
Derivatives are specious consolations,
Technicalities at which
I have been lately chafing, for example:
How to do what needs. How not to harm you.
We sat and talked an hour in anecdote, the summer term
Conclusively about us. Eudemus says: ‘The same
Has many senses’ – an odour as of lately written
Utterance, a fraught white yes of bloom.
VJ René is a poet and PhD student at the University of East Anglia. They are the author of two pamphlets, Scavengers (2021) and HYDRA (2010). Recent work has been published by Propel, Datableed and BODY. You can find them on Instagram and Twitter @byvjrene.