HYPOTHETICAL

Man is a hypothetical
hole he falls into
on his way to the
finite. There was a

time, of course, when
time seemed to hold
its breath in bated
anticipation of some

purely mythical second
chance. But that was
before. This is reality,
a stone no angel can

roll back in memory
of what awaits us.

KNOWABLE

My grandfather, who once tried to figure out what the dead worry about, always slept with his future safely behind him.

THE DIFFERENCE

Though his last words
weren't famous, they
were audible to everyone
in the room and

capable of becoming
birds under the
circumstances. We
stood under those

circumstances for
as long as we could,
then continued on
down the path

most traveled by
to avoid the difference.

MAKEUP

A darkness light
can't cure hides
in the shadows
and waits. Time

waits for no man,
of course, but seems
willing enough to
wait while a woman

puts her makeup on.
Then it's time to
go (past time,
actually), and we

do, but not before double
checking our eyelids.

ORCHIDS

Returning from a bygone
era, I think a modern
thought and watch it
blossom. One of

Coleridge's famous idea
orchids gets lodged in
my ear and has to be
siphoned out.

A color which had
thought itself primary
ceases to be a
color at all. Time

gets relegated to an
inaccessible corner of history.

DE TROP

Extra-terrestrials seem de trop to us, but are absolutely essential too themselves.

YOU AGAIN

When I can no
longer remember
your name, let
it be because

you have stepped
out for a breath
of fresh air or have
returned to where

everyone goes when
they're not at home.
I think you're at
least as wonderful

as you were when
I knew who you were.