Tuesday, July 5, 2022

SPACETIME PERTURBATIONS

What if it turns out, 
the last time you tried to smile, 

you were right, 
to find that guileless mix

of gloom 
and wild anxiety 

leaking out 
like freakish black light 

from behind all the cracks 
between teeth? 

For it seems
we can never really, 

really, really 
be free

in a world 
where even Einstein 

went white-haired 
and died 

believing we would always need, 
at least, these two great

and terrible things:
first, the space 

in which to be it—
and even worse, the time 

it takes 
to feel a need.