5. John Kinsella, May 12 2009 

Body

Unfurl date lines, spectre
        of water and air, seaplane
aglow at sunset, comfy
        deep-sea bird, days from land.
Flying fish; recollect those
        carbon credits.



Soul

        The ship of Theseus
oversails: compliant
        shadow, one wing
replacing another,
        each face at the window,
same as divergence.



Body

Watch an old face grow
        bored with the familiar: travel
formulates to broaden forests
        out of tree circumference
plus height plus one quarter average crown
        spread to make totality.



Soul

        You’d limit my limits, narrow
my range; impose your limit or de-limit
        constraint. Step my shadow
out of your shoes. Categorise.
        Hem to one-size-fits-all.
Cosmic rays in search of a paradox.



Body

Noisy Scrub Bird; Yangtze River Dolphin; Seychelles
        Sheath-tailed Bat; Madagascar Pochard; Northern Hairy-
nosed Wombat; Javan Rhino, Iberian Lynx; Dwarf Blue Sheep;
        Hispid Hare; Abington Island Giant Tortoise; Californian Condor;
stretch soul stretch — eco-tourist sales pitch — fly in fly out witness;
        short-necked tortoises in ephemeral swamps around Perth.


[For an interesting contextualisation regarding the paradox of Theseus’s Ship, see Richard Sorabji’s essay ‘Soul and Self in Ancient Philosophy’ in From Soul to Self, ed. M. James C. Crabbe (Routledge, 1999, p.23).]

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