GEDANKENEXPERIMENT

To a waveparticle of light, 

there is no big picture;

there's 

no such thing 

as later, 

no such 

thing as night. 

It that sense, 

each photon is pure 

excitation; 

as a matter of course, 

it must exist 

in a permanent 

present, whatever 

the cost. 

There is no domain 

where it ought 

not to travel; 

where it goes is 

what there is, so 

it cannot be lost. 

In short, it composes 

the world through 

which it hurtles—

kind of 

like this thought. 

SUNK COST

Our low-key

favorite 

thing about these bodies 

is their penchant 

for falling 

just short of their ideal. 

This fetish 

for the defect—this hell 

of the self—

this giddy-

thrilled refusal 

to feel what we most need 

may seem 

like a torment—

like a bad poker hand—

but we see it 

as a palmed ace, 

as a check not yet cashed. 

This hectic grace, 

this restlessness 

is an interest 

which pays compounding 

dividends the longer 

we invest;

it's the reason 

we buy-in again 

and again—

even after 

the market has 

crashed.

PROGNOSIS

In the age 

of mechanical 

reproduction, 

consumers 

will function 

as the artists

and all those 

who dine upon 

these words 

shall be granted 

the might of an 

author intervening.

A bottled rich 

umami flavor 

overtakes the palate;

information 

saturates—suffocates 

the meaning. 

SUI GENERIS

Gray geese 

fly camouflaged 

by overcast skies 

as wavewater percolates 

through slate-

stippled sand. 

The import

of this sort of thing 

to a certain stripe of mind 

is harder

to explain than it is 

to understand:

Most people

just want to know

how many clouds? 

A few would go

further and wonder

what kind?

NONPLUSSED

The origami crane

fashioned from 

a dollar bill

interrupts 

your complicity 

in the collective dream

by momentarily 

making the fantastic

real.

*

It's all going 

to work out, we say—or

it's okay, 

or 

it's not 

that important—

as if kicking

the empty soft pack 

of "it" down the road 

after flushing the cigarettes 

of "is" 

down the toilet. 

*

In the future, 

words like "nonplussed" 

mean their opposite,

and belief in the devil 

is actively shunned,

while all manner 

of heretofore 

abstract objects

now exist just

to astound:

Welcome. 

Please finish logging in 

to your account. 

Stay safe. 

Stay healthy. 

Stay busy. 

Stay stunned. 

CLUE

One 

by one, tiny sun-

smitten buds 

shiver up the lilac branches—

the way 

new lines of poetry 

appear 

to ring true 

simply 

by virtue 

of having 

just been written. 

EBB TIDE

What does it mean 

to say a life 

has been "spent?"

Exhausted 

from treading 

the waters of want?

Or else, from always holding 

our watery hands out 

hoping to receive 

our allowance 

of suffering? 

Perhaps, it's forgetting 

the fad of transcending;

eschewing 

jagged edges for 

softness made stronger.

It's not as if, someday, 

we won't 

still be filled 

with the infernal desires 

of dubious strangers; 

but with any luck, 

we'll have grown too old 

and tired to stand up

and shake their bejeweled 

hands any longer.