FUGUE STATE

Berkson's speaker's relationship to objects is specific where one expects generality, tactile where one expects only sight, active when it should be passive: "I removed the rains and motored/ and flipped through the covers of a board/ ...in the mirror-narrow confines of an/ eyesore fog you can fly/ over still and put/ your finger on a dune." Likewise, Berkson (Serenade), a professor at the San Francisco Art Institute, tweaks, upends or razes object-to-object interactions, leaving the impression that while anything is possible, one has no say (luckily) in what happens: "A blank wall is singing/ to be separate from the rest./ It is too mild for the casually attired// ...Or else my superstitions are wrong/ ...or anyhow panting." (Sept.)