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Imaginary Lines
March 30, 2005    File under: Tapeworm

Who I Am is a picture with some lines hatching to verify, laminate
physiognomy Canadians inspect then stamp, lines on lines an
allowance, permit, recognition: I've stepped over the imaginary

line that demarks one country from another, the power of which
is that it gathers attention and gaze and is presided over as in
a vigil, a watch, by people of different countries, accents, faiths

and now, Who I Am remains untouched because the lines that say
who I am remain, fix and locate me, a face beneath the boundary
lines that cannot be removed, the fingerprint sworls of water-

mark and water surface, the skim and skein of registration that say
citizen: I wash from the arrival lounge to Baggage Claim
and Ground Transportation and Those Returning Home who eye

and locate me: Who I Am is Elsewhere: eh? the sound of lattitude
or lassitude of torpor and ease soon forgotten: money changed
but still money, the faces change, a queen underlined or under

lines, the watermark and engraver's weave that keep her there,
keep impostors from sneaking in: short cab to hotel and once
again Who I Am peeks from the topographical reticulum that says

True and the concierge smiles, his rictus wrinkling his
cheek-skin in verifying creases: a few stroke on the keys and
the paper's up: please sign here (Who) on the dotted line:

Posted by Jake Adam York at March 30, 2005 6:37 PM