William James Beholds a Roman Fountain (example of free-verse couplets)

William James Beholds a Roman Fountain

I’m writing this poem about a creature, my thought is perched

I am contemplating the beast, some kind of thought claw in my eyes

I am contemplating the beast there is a river I swim alongside

some kind of flesh some kind of color I was hoping for the golden one

I am contemplating instead the one with humble colors a little tan

a little blue some mottles but blended in so it looks like a pale web

it looks like fur brushed backwards and little expiring sparks from it

it flies and lands seeing a forest from high on a mountainside at dawn  

I am contemplating the possibility of flight for the creature or my thinking about it

here I go the creature is me and doesn’t want to show much of itself to words

here I go the creature is itself and wants to fly from my gaze how it fades

itself now with such clarity going to the matte the flat the ebbed opaque

here I go lifting on almost boneless wings it’s so easy I stop I go

with cats and owls, monkeys and platypuses, dodos and leghorns

all over them with my ofs and my buts and my rushing further

and thus my feathers ruffled, ruffling, stop, what waters are these.