"set down your name among the fallen the hand that wrote it will rise again to judge you."
- Poet
Six Short Individual Poems
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Part 1 Diagnosis I. Surgery Surgery— Today cuts yesterday— the calendar blade. You carve the year's new initials. The beech—scarred— keeps its reverie-venant in smooth wood. ======== II. The Future, Uninvited The future isn't knocking— inside already, thumbnail at the doorframe's paint. Wood smoke. Bergamot—ash. That cologne of Occurrence— you still holding the empty shot glass. ========== III. No Reset The heart does not reset at midnight— the liver does not forgive. Neurons fire their exhausted patterns: flinching—craving—glass in hand again—shuddering like the heat-pump kicking on as you almost— almost— sleep. Your face in the mirror— steady— waiting to see if you'll disappoint it. ========== IV. Rings Rings on the counter— like your mother's plant left years on the sill: Live Evidence— no one bothered to move. The kitchen smells of nothing yet— that early sadness of resolutions you haven't— not yet— betrayed. ========= V. What Continues The self does not reset— continues— playing song in an empty room. We drag it all: rage swallowed at the feast, the lover whose face we can't recall the Ledger— left blank the moment we said fine— Meaning—so far—from Fine— I’ve forgotten—what Fine—looked like. =========== VI. Threshold Fear crosses the threshold— checking your phone at every red light eating over the sink so it doesn't count as hunger chewing your cheek until it tastes of copper the way you say sorry before you've even spoken— all of it followed. That stray you fed once— you woke up one morning and it had become you. Or you had become it. Now when you look in the mirror you can't tell if you're wearing its face or it's wearing yours. Either way, you've stopped asking which one got fed. Good dog.
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