T.O. Brandon

Constriction: A Manifesto

Knotwork

is the art

of folding

something

on itself

until it holds.

Through cunning, matter

changeling as a rope

can double backward

past its path and twine

through self-

enlooping shapes

until the pattern’s

traction pulls

it taut to trace

a line into a truss.

Just so, the anaconda

finds its surest brace

against its bones,

enwinding

all its length

through bowline

and half-hitch

to purl a coiling

labyrinth

of strength.

Some dream in grand excursions of unfolding endlessly…

It’s not for me.

Give me a net, or mesh

of latticed bars to press

my weight against.

Bind me with form.

Grant me the knot’s

hard art of finding friction

in the self: the spot

where meaning catches

on the crux

of contradiction.

Let every line re-weave

Arachne’s loomwork like a spider:

the web that’s woven right

when every struggle pulls it tighter.

T.O. Brandon lives in his hometown of Nashville, Tennessee, where he teaches literature and rhetoric. His work has previously appeared in New Verse Review, and he has poetry forthcoming in Literary Matters.