Too Late
for Paul

The infant is,
of course, always
at the entrance,
waiting for its

words.  Our
footsteps are
by definition
man-made and

seem to be
encouraging us
to catch up.
We do, but too

late to erase the
difference they make.

There

When our imaginary
wars began producing
real victims, the game's
maker recalled a

long conversation
he had had with his
accountant regarding
different ways of maximizing

profits.  Removing his
slippers, he slipped
into the Jacuzzi and
counted his blessings

to make sure they
were all there.

Music
for Said

The distance between
no one and noon
is negligible.  Nothing
can happen in a space

that small.  Ancient
laws keep tiptoeing
toward us in a
misguided effort

to guide us away
from the future.
Music erases the
seams that make

us seem stitched
together by mistake.

Since

God lived (then)
in a small house
in the middle
of everywhere.

It was cold
there, though.
Circumstances
within and out

of God's control
forced him to
move.  He became
(thus) the celebrated

Prime Mover, shifting
his weight at will.

GENRES

Our heroine touches
a knife (a letter
opener, actually) to
her throat.  The

boy who dies on
page thirty-seven
turns up again
in a work of

non-fiction that
may or may not
be somebody's
autobiography.

Nothing's clear when
the rest is mystery.

SUNNY

In the ice-cold
climes of the far
north people wait
until the great thaw

to bury their dead.
Here in sunny
southern California
we bury our dying

a couple of hours
before their actual
deaths to allow
ourselves time to

reach the cemetery
they will die in.

WHICH

Because everyone everywhere
had conceded everything,
nothing happened.  Traffic
stopped where it was and

stayed there indefinitely.
The sun pretended to
"rise" (it actually
never had), but

only as a courtesy.
A chicken climbed into
the nest next to its
egg to obviate any

possible argument
over which came first.