January 2007

It is truly no evidence of a great soul
O nature
and if you aren't magnanimous
it may be you don't exist at all

Could you really not treat him to a sudden death
like a candle guttering
like a wig slipping off
like a ring's short...

The psalter invites us to consider
a cat and a rat in relationship
to an arched hole, which we
shall call Circumstance. Out of

Circumstance walks the splendid
rat, who is larger than he ought
to be, and who affects an expression...

Now that the time remaining is insubstantial,
I need to review my history while asking
What exactly it suggests I've lived for,
What pleasures or duties, what moods
Of brief elation or extended calm.

To expect a meaning deeper than that,
To believe in a purpose...