Poetry: Eblaite Cuneiform by Allison Hummel

I see the language
                         incised
                         dip & divot
                         logosyllabic
                         but I don’t touch it

it is protocontentment
and I am         actual contentment now

it is a slug of ancient       city from a cup,
‘speech           intonation &    stress’
I want none of it really, the best words
are so easy to say, you just go ha ha ha

it’s cool though that our first missives
were puffy breadlike bricks and wet
pounded pulp. I like the idea a lot and
always have

ducks and Taweret
super-longing for something round and ineffable
a perfect globe of flood a groundless calix
things that look like other things, that you could eat

these were the miragey ephemera of
myself as an eleven year old
                cuneiform a frangipane cake
                never having always getting
                never resting, flaxy, the still object
                surrounded by the changing world

so I gather that sometimes even
our        fantasies
fall short of what we receive.
Because we rummage around for things
in the dust, and                are given them
                                                         in flesh

Allison Hummel is based in Los Angeles. Her work has recently appeared in Clade Song, new sinews, Dream Pop, and Wax Nine. Work is forthcoming from Figure 1.