The Spiral Cannot Be Seen from the Ground

The field is not a room. The field has no walls. The field is what the walls were keeping out.

Basalt, salt, wind, water, sky. Basalt, salt, wind, water, sky. The compass gives the same answer no matter which way you face.

A woman walks to the edge of the lake. She is not looking for anything. She is looking at the lake which is not looking back.

The lake has its own memory. It keeps what it takes. It returns what it keeps covered in salt.

Basalt, salt, wind, water, sky. The inventory is the argument. Each item equal. None the answer.

The spiral cannot be seen from the ground. You have to be above it. You have to be outside it. You have to be the thing that is not the spiral.

The woman kneels at the waterline. She puts her hand in the lake. The lake does not ask what she is looking for. The lake does not ask.

Basalt, salt, wind, water, sky. The list is the poem. The poem is the list. The list is enough.

The woman stands. She is not the same woman. The lake is the same lake. The lake is not the same lake.

She walks back across the field. The field has no walls. The field is what the walls were keeping out. The field is what she was keeping out.

Basalt, salt, wind, water, sky.