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The Age

Saturday March 23, 1996

Gary Catalano

     When I flicked through
     my second-hand copy
     of The Complete Poems

     of Charles Reznikoff
     I found that
     its previous owner

     had left a
     dried flowerhead
     wedged between pages

     one hundred and seventy
     and one hundred
     and seventy-one

     a bookmark you
     could almost call
     a poem in itself

     if it weren't for
     the truly objective fact
     that the purple language

     in which it's written
     can't possibly
     ever be read.