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CDLXVIII
Puvis de Chavannes's The Balloon

Nothing fills a philosopher
more than Contemplation
of Nothing:

And O, Nothing could be better

(he molding it carefully
till it assumes just
recognizable outlines & forms

which he can then pass
through a whole!
microscope of concepts
as easily as through a hole)

O Nothing could be better than
this, I'm telling you: a philosopher

making IT audible, straining IT,
& then filtering Nothing!

through wild, splattering transfigurations!

or swishing its MATTER (dubitable, de-
batable substantiality) across
all kinda crazy spectacles of Speculation,

Nothing (could be better) than he
tickling IT, taking ITs weight!

against Th'Just feather/pressures
of human Judgment--with adjustments--thus

to unlock its Truths, Half-Truths &
Non-Truths (its best of all hidden treasures)

And O, better--I'd say, better because
when he's finished with Nothing
no one has to come down to clean up
after him, and this is far, far

better than you looking into
SOMETHING!!!!

and maybe spilling some of it
on your best suit...

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