issue 30 > poetry > slavitt
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Tenses
by David Slavitt
“I read,” unless you are speaking, is whatever tense
you or the context may want: it deigns to agree.
The historical present cavorts to confuse or expand
our too linear thinking. Then and now
will both be then, soon enough, but who keeps track?
Tenses relax and elephants lumber by
to ancient music that echos in their heads
in a rhythm in which their swinging trunks keep time.