Say there are two kinds of hole : Through & Blind.
The taproot of the juvenile birch sockets itself down
into acid Siberian soil where the mature birch siphons
up its livelihood : This is Blind. To be born an :
altricial animal means to come out helpless. In the birch
copse a mom wolf hems a caul across her pup’s eyes
to stop him : straying off and into harm. Such are
the first acts we can say : of familial love.
American law stipulates no wire : be untappable : Here
is the nation of Through. The antennae of our silver birch trans-
mitted, yes, some signal through the panels of my family
home : To say now satellite is too abstract : To say
lady in waiting is too real. The queer mesh bird trilling
from the hole in : the birch outside my third-floor
window used to say Be real with me. : We are born
: you & I : into days of realness.
Then to say : what kind of hole a hole is : is to say
what you can see. If you close your eyes and open your
: blind : hand beneath the Nation you will prick
your fingers on a web of silver roots. They have this whole
time been propagating : through : the soil. There
are messages passed up the family tree. Did you know
the inverse of altricial is precocious? I knew everything
when I was young. Had all kinds of holes in me admitted
—yes—some injury. You show me yours says the National dad-
wolf uncorking his big sight and I’ll show you— : Don’t
look now but. Between Through & Blind there opens up
a third kind of hole : call it Conspiracy : Passing :
whorl in the birch. You know the signal that I'm casting from its
: silver concave : conclave hollow-but-together.
Stray but not unaided and sent back. Quiet now—real quiet. :
A sudden drop in voltage means someone is listening in.
I have passed invisibly : through the caul of your life
to share this : I am passing like a needle : Am gaining
: admittance : Am leaving : an invisible hole :