Beyond the Zero?

[Joseph Tracy]

The place of the zero in modern art and economics ( inspired by group read of Gravity’s Rainbow)

To step away from the existing patterns, to start from your own zero
like a child, like Marco Polo, Like Chagall, Lao Tsu, Tyrone Slothrop
to circulate the air, the rain, the face of the childhood sweetheart
the killing of the family cow, the wonders of a distant culture 
strange hills, deserts at night, mountain passes,  bad English candy
in and out, up and down,  round and round and out in your own voice
 out of your own hands, your own dreams

gesture, form, color, value, fear, desire
smell, touch, the clack of rails, the call of birds
everything sinks into the planetary womb 
the  well wormed grave to rebirth as
 plastic debris, various currencies, rocket fuel, mountain stream
infant eyes

The flight of the rocket is really only half the zero
half a circle, half a rainbow
The fuel came from beneath our feet,
 fell there, a debt that is not owed, can never be paid
 sinking from the eyeballs of the great lizards
from human shit, horse shit, tree leaves
sparking through an ancient autumn sky

The rain falls, but the rainbow arcs up
to embrace the star
Some days we are Carravagio, angry, hot, lusty
Making the world’s shit and our own visible
Some days careless and adrift on the river
flowing and alive, gently dancing like orchids in the wind

I like to linger in the moonlight on Honolulu Bay
But suddenly a thousand zeroes on Honolulu Bay
The bloody beaches, the lack of peaches
who bring their ukes along
 And  there's too many burning zeroes in not enough sweet songs 

J Tracy



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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l