Lapse 

Rae Armantrout

1.

To keep my abridgment
consistent
with its previous iterations

and with those of others
is a nearly
all-consuming task,

allowing just a thin trickle
of the new
to be processed—

or so I’m told—

but those whose recaps
self-contradict
hardly seem better informed.

2.

When intention stutters,
it is not a pleasant
flicker.

Anyone can be
hypnotized
by blinking lights.

But one can also find
oneself
mesmerized by nothing

while deep inside,
in bones and gut,

the thoughts
think themselves.