To be able to move
When all the days and nights were full of
And I was a valley you could echo a sound into.
I was a lake, a pool;
one who mumbles: one
who makes the noise of a ship
and the sound of the waves. One who makes the sound
of a house.
***
one who mumbles: one
who makes the noise of a ship and the sound of the waves: one
who makes a noise which is similar to the sound of the sea
who has a mouth like a ship
who has no legs or arms
who speaks like a ship.
When I was a mountain I could stand and see.
***
To be as thick as a brick, to be as thin as a mosquito’s wing.
To be covered in feathers, as the female peacock.
To disappear, as a bird, “He disappeared into the trees. There was nothing
there. He flew away and was gone.”
To float down to the bottom of a stream, as a bird.
***
It was the difference between the water of the sea and the air of the air.
To be able to move through the air without being held in the air by something
To come out of the water, like a stone, to be pressed by a stick or shovel
To appear and vanish
To make a curve or form a curve in
To be the same as the word “water,” and the verb to pour out water
To be a part of or a part of the word "water"
To become rounded, the way a rounded piece of glass does
To be like a feather and to be used as a cushion
To be as soft as honey,
To be as soft as water
***
Warm water brings warmth to those that drink
it; cold water brings cold to those that don’t.
***
“A picture of a tree, a picture of the sky, a picture of a tree.”
to open up the skin, as a flower opens up the skin of its petals to
open its stamen to
to produce a strong smell, as the pungent aroma of garlic
The term for the back of a man's head in a canoe.
To be like the wind and to be used as a blanket.
To be like a shadow that never leaves.
***
The same “to be put into the sun” when it is in the shade.
The same “to be put in the sea” when it is in the ocean.
The same “to be put under” or in the earth when it is in the
earth or in the water.
“The plaited line or flutter of a flock of birds, or the spread out
of a family, when
they go to or fro together.”
***
clamour of geese; cluck of geese, or, the cluck of the clock
***
“To curl a flower,” or to curl a string.
The way the light is split in a flashlight, the way the light breaks in the eye,
the way the light changes color in the rain, the way the light moves in the sky.
The way a tongue “tries to curl.” (It's like a tooth that is used in the mouth.)
The way a feather curls at the base.
as when a leaf moves in the wind.
as when water is poured on a mirror.
as in the smell of honey.
Nathan Austin is the author of (glost), Tie an O, and Survey Says!, as well as the recent broadside Surround Sound (for Éliane Radigue). His work has recently appeared in Speculative Nonfiction, The Believer, Talisman, ToCall, and Translation: a Halophyte Collective exhibition. He lives in Los Angeles.