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FRANÇOIS LUONG 


The Rusty Toque | Issue 11 | Poetry | November 30, 2016

​from The Glass Transition

The house
with the bolted doors
has no doors, the speed
of a measureless statement.
 
~ Emmanuel Hocquard, The Invention of Glass

I.
​

No matter what     the image
     shifts as it goes
through and against the surface
 
the green cab idling at
     the traffic light
 
the couple drinking
on the other side
     of the window
 
the deli clerk
across the street
 
distances and what
is etched into the eye
 
favoring another direction
               sense impressions
 
          if not for
​At the line between
the outside and what
has no shape and yet
 
stands against two
angles    the angles
occurring with each
 
          passage
 
and a permanent
architecture and shifts
    with the hour
 
morning and past
          sunset
 
The passersby    the crowds
    the painted words
defining the use
 
of what is enclosed
          here
 
No memories we kept here
The pixelated blur
of the woman’s face
saturated with red hues
 
bounces through
and against the surfaces
lining the streets
 
as she smiles and fades
from the pentile matrix
of a display with an unknown
 
origin     crisscrossed
by the rushed trajectories
 
          of rootless
logo names and designs
 
     liquid names
vibrating with windowpanes
 
a game of mirrors standing
against the city from within
 
               the city
Two panes at an angle
acting as half-mirror
carry the exterior in
 
          and back out
 
     a game of splits
and bouncing back
 
the clock or the image
of a clock half-stops
against the surface
 
          and through
 
shimmering over
the two women
in saturated hues
 
standing on the other side
 
     What the clock gives
     to the windowpane
Opening into and out of
where the image goes
     all depends on
 
the curvature of the cut
 
convex to widen
the size of a hand
or so he said
 
a hairline facture
distills the beam
into its component
 
     waves     hues
 
penetrating and never
entering     at once
 
Going through
without so much
 
                     as a push
In the early hours
of evening     how
this empty room
 
enclosed within
panes of glass
     fills up with
 
silhouettes
on the move
 
lets the skyline in
and out again
 
concrete   asphalt
glass against glass
passersby     split
 
as if one could
measure in such way
 
the divided image
Always in a straight line
if not for
          the deformities
 
     of the material
of the impurities
          therein
 
so goes the beam
the image     a function
 
of metallic precipitates
stopped in transition
          liquid
 
Dust bonds onto
the reflection of
flattened landscapes
 
     wrapping around
 
trinkets hanging over
          passages
 
This enclosure opening into
What is not captured
in the end
               is what
 
the material does
and does not permit
 
what is enclosed and what
is allowed to escape
 
distances and depth
wave or particle
 
translucent reflections
with no point of origin
 
In the absence
of an underlayer
 
it all scatters
through and away
 
a history of reduction
that can’t be fixed
Then if not for what
penetrates and rebounds
against the surface
 
     a rusted fire escape
     the ridged spines
     of cell towers
 
how it breaks and scatters
 
all depends on
the rigidity of what
is described
 
fault lines within
 
layers after layers
heat and pressure
     determine
 
the arrangement of parts
 
Here a tangent may
break to give shape
          to a letter
Originally from Strasbourg, France, FRANÇOIS LUONG currently lives in San Francisco, California, where he writes, translates, draws, and designs. With Geneva Chao, he is the translator of Nicolas Tardy’s Encrusted on the Living (LX Press, 2016). He has also translated the works of Esther Tellermann, François Turcot, Hector Ruiz, and other poets from France and Québec. His work has otherwise appeared in Open Letter, dandelion, New American Writing, Aufgabe, Verse, and elsewhere.

Photo by Adam J. Silverman
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  • Home
    • Issue 1 >
      • Creative Nonfiction: 1
      • Fiction: 1
      • Screenwriting: 1
      • Poetry: 1
      • Contributors: 1
    • Issue 2 >
      • Visual Art: 2
      • Fiction: 2
      • Poetry: 2
      • Masthead: 2
      • Contributors: 2
    • Issue 3 >
      • Poetry: 3
      • Visual Art: 3
      • Comics: 3
      • Fiction: 3
      • Reviews: 3
      • Masthead: 3
      • Contributors: 3
    • Issue 4 >
      • Prose: 4
      • Poetry: 4
      • Reviews: 4
      • Visual Art: 4
      • Contributors: 4
      • Masthead: 4
    • Issue 5 >
      • Nonfiction Kathy Acker & McKenzie Wark
      • Drama: 5
      • Prose: 5
      • Poetry: 5
      • Film: 5
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      • Reviews: 5
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    • Issue 11 >
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