Thinginess

Thinginess

Original Text

Jason Guriel. Pure Product. Montréal, Québec: Véhicule Press, 2009.

               It was their intention to present things in their thinginess....
                            —J.C. Ransom, on the Imagists
1But if you could isolate
2the thinginess
3from its thing
4the distillate
5would be as abstract
6as the slapback echo
7of just-plucked strings
8in the King's Ur-recordings
9for Sun Studios,
10or the pushback
11of a Coke can
12before it gives
13way to your compacting grip.
14Thinginess is the width
15times length times height
16that boosts babies up
17to the eye-lines
18of grownups at dinner.
19It's the doorstopper-
20ability of phonebooks,
21the necessary tubing
22that defines
23the nothing blowing
24thru ducts.
25It's the word "through"
26spelled with "u."
27It's all such
28pure products.
RPO poem Editors
Jim Johnstone
RPO Edition
2013
Special Copyright

Poem used with permission of the author.