So I made Thomas Kane from scratch, easily & almost
as I would the very lesson of a homespun parable, something like
with enough turns of the wrist--look!--a layer-cake. And because
he is part insatiable, he will receive daily gifts: A butterfly net
& a lariat for his collecting, a sieve because he must learn
to differentiate the hay penny from the actual artifact. And having been asked
to read of excess unreproved, having dreamt that night of knowing it
against his flesh, he woke & for a gift begged
only that the till be withheld. By design, Thomas Kane is enamored
of many things at once: an empty dance floor and a pitch pipe,
a nesting doll's identical blue dresses, a church sign that begins a family
that prays together and another that begins in the valley
of my brethren. By design, he is made to imagine all his loves into one place,
unapologetic in this need for nearness. Which is all to say, Thomas Kane is taken
by permanence: Once, he skated his favorite shapes into an iced river,
later cursing the thaw which vanished them. So think of him
as you would the boy who faints & weeps at drawn blood,
who has a rusty, old box for cast-off fabrics,
who inscribes each passed tree with the promise to return.
Thomas Kane "How to: A Prime Mover" by Thomas Kane. Used by permission of the poet. Copyright (C) 2007 by Thomas Kane.