T.O. Brandon

Constriction: A Manifesto

Knot-work

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 loom-work 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.