As the ellipse
of a zero

is to nothing. As
the starfish’s

five sucker-tips
are to the mussel’s valves

they wrench open, as its
inverted, flung-

out stomach
is to the mussel’s meat.

Or as a glacier to the hiss
and crumble of its calving.

As the foghorn
to the offing, no:

as the offing’s
visibility, to the fog.

As cadence, to caesura.
Or insomnia

to obsessive dream.
As et cetera

to what’s unmentioned,
incognito

to the name. As the difference
to the subtracted-

from. As loess
to sirocco,

bioluminescence
to the murk.

As arthritic
fingers to the étude, as

bone-grind
to arthritis. As a saint’s

gnawed jawbone
to the reliquary’s

purple felt. As alienation
of affection

is to flesh of my flesh,
bone of my bones.

As breath
to pleura, the clitoral

hood to the tongue:
As as is to as, I am to You, as

castrati’s
scrota, to the song.