Ibidem by Fiona Moore

Hold on find a handhold a foothold

the smallest crack or dip      or bump in the rock

to pull you up     or not     exposed

saying hell no ah fuck fuck no at the vertiginous drop

ibid ibid ibidem

dolorem lorem ipsum

a rip in the roar of oblivion

says the Ibis / Iris / Isis

we pull at / on  / in vain

the black tabs of redaction

claw slick lumps off an oily cliff

dolorem lorem ipsum

our fingernails scratch at the glass 

bars of a chart / statistical

lies damn lies and alas

ibid ibid ibidem

we grasp after / for / into

a weathery cumulonimbus

or a sine of crescendoing waves

that break oh issima issima

at a stalactite dripping 

slip and too cold

or thousands of reeds that outfringe a lode

in the wind oh issima issima

clutch and launch / unclutch and relaunch

we’re not what we think we thought

and our thoughts

ibid ibid ibidem

go splat

in a structurally unsound factory

of anyone’s theory of history

dolor dolor dolorem

for the subfusc generation

material / material to work on

unweave your tent of intent

dolorem lorem ipsum

thesis antithesis syn

our bedraggled phoenix reborn

redraggled / behaggled / forlorn

half-flown oh issima issima

while ibid and ibid again

says the Iris / Isis / Ibis

dolorem lorem ipsum

                    ibid ibid ibidem

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Fiona Moore's first collection The Distal Point (Happenstance) was shortlisted for the TS Eliot and Seamus Heaney prizes.  Her second collection is Okapi (Blue Diode).  She is on the Magma Poetry team and the Poetry in Aldeburgh committee.