Peter Gizzi

Château if

If love
if then if now
if the flowers of
if the conditional
if of arrows the condition of if
if to say light to inhabit light
if to speak if to live, so
if to say it is you
if love is if your form is
if your waist that pictures the fluted stem
if lavender if in this field
if I were to say hummingbird
if might behave as an adjective here
if not if the heart's a flutter
if nerves map a city
if a city on fire
if I say myself am I saying myself
(if in this instant) as if the object of your gaze
if in a sentence about love you might write
if one day if you would, so
if to say myself
if in this instance
if to speak as another-
if only to render
if in time and accept
if to live now as
if disembodied from the actual handwritten letters m-y-s-e-l-f
if a creature
if what you say
if only to embroider-
a city that overtakes the city I write
if in Provence.