—"mu" fifty-third part—    Some new Atlantis known as Lower Ninth we took leave of next, half the  turtle’s back away. Whole bodies   we saw floating, not only heads…   Endless letting go, endless looking else-  where, endless turning out to be  otherwise… Woods all around where    we came to next. We’d been   eating wind, we’d been drinking  wind,  rumoring someone looked at God eye  to eye… In what seemed a dream but   we saw wasn’t we saw dirt sliding.   We were back and all the buildings  were gone. What were cliffs to us we  wondered, blown dust of Bandiagara, what the eroding precipice we saw… Ground  acorns ground our teeth now. All but  all gums, we were where the Alone   lived, came to a clearing lit by light so  bright we staggered, Nub it was we knew   we were still in… The mountain of   the night a mound of nothing, Toulali’s burr  what balm there was. Toulali’s burr what  balm, remote though it was, lifetimes behind us now… Voice laryngitic, lost   and lost again, blown grit rubbed itaway…  Someone had said something came to mind. Someone had sung something, what  its words were no one could say. Sang it   bittersweet, more brusque than bitter, song’s  cloth endowment stripped… Choric strain,   repeatedly slipped entablature. Given… Given    endlessly again… No telling when but   intent on telling, no telling what. Wished we were home again

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 Refugees was a word we’d heard, raw talk of soul insistent, adamant,   the nonsong we sang or the song  we nonsang, a word we’d heard we heard  was us… Wept in our sleep, again one with what would never again be  there, raw talk rummaged our book,the   backs of our hands written on with   cornmeal, the awaited ones reluctant again…    The city of sad children’s outskirts we  were in, woods notwithstanding, woods   nonetheless, bright light the light we saw    as we were jolted, raw talk spiraling away…     We were there and somewhere else no   matter where we were, everywhere more     than where we were… Where the Alone   lived we donned abalone-shell ornaments,   light’s clarity conceded, night yet to relent, Toulali     smoldered on, semisang, semispoke, wrestled  with his tongue it seemed… We trudged in place,    barely lifted our feet, backbeat hallowing   every step we took,  moved us albeit we stayed      put. We were where we were, somewhere     else no matter where, evacuees a word we’d heard…    Stutter step, stuck shuffle, dancelike, Toulali’s     croon enticed us, toyed with us, ground gone under   where we   stood