The Kernel

1.

Now, at this time, having been diminished
I diminish further--
You understand how it is.
Perhaps you've noticed my voice
has dropped a few registers.
Oh, you can't hear me?

2.

Goodbye, pal.
I disengage from camaraderie, dispatch friends and
well-wishers, maintain no defense against my enemies
cancel my subscription to the New York Review of Books.
Mail unopened drops into the receptacle for recycled paper.
I send the telephone, cell phone, internet provider,
and cable television companies unsigned checks in envelopes
without stamps. All channels of communication lapse in
blessed silence. Lights gas water go off. I sit in the dark
listening to the late night thrum of traffic in the city.

3.

In the cascades of a wild river I perch on a rocky outcrop
drenched in spume my coat in winter rime and hoarfrost
subsist on lichen moss the eggs of eagles
In summer I bake under fierce suns.
My skin is leather, my eyes agate. I curl up
into a ball and grow hard .

Nothing remains but nucleus and potential.