I’ll not see the pearly gates
Nor blaze of the infernal,
For thanks to Zeno’s paradox,
My life must be eternal:
The time I’ve left divides in half
In fractions, o’er and o’er,
So mathematically, at least,
I’ll live forevermore!
The time I’ve left divides in half
In fractions, o’er and o’er,
So mathematically, at least,
I’ll live forevermore!
So mathematically, at least,
I’ll live forevermore!
I’ll live forevermore!
orion hovers
over a vein of pure gold
in the black forest
out here I feel my spirit
out here I plumb my soul
–photo by my son, aaron
searching for why
i came upon when,
what, and where,
but nobody could
explain the why
question mark
looking deep into
higher knowledge,
i sampled wicca
studied the vedas
sacred geometry
and freemasonry
comma
learned kabbalah
read the holy bible
book of the dead
the way of the tao
quantum physics
and cosmology
exclamation point
my efforts were
not completely
without reward
as i did uncover
an absolute truth:
no man, now or
ever, knows why
period
pieces of winter
are caught with nowhere to hide
beneath a spring moon
–photo by me
A
Benzodiazepine
Can
Diminish
Edgy
Feelings
Greatly;
However,
I
Just
Know
Liquor’s
More
Numbing.
Old
People
Question
Recent
Science;
To
Us
Vehement
Winos,
Xanax
Yields
Zero.
jealousy and anger
they’re not even real
we just made them up
cuz there’s worse things to feel
like heartbreak and sorrow
the heart of the fray
we’d pretend anything
if they’d just go away
on our grand wedding day
when our mates said, ‘I do’
did we ever assume
we were forcing them to
release them we must
from our ill-conceived plan
cuz nothing shows love
more than real love can
and when love comes back
on it’s own you will know
that to feel true love
you must first let it go
Away from the fire,
Alone together at last,
We gazed into the starry
Heavens and held hands,
Her beautiful yellow eyes
Sparkling with starlight.
Taking it all in, she said,
“Do you ever wonder what
There is beyond our cloud
Of stars, our Milkomeda?”
So curious, I loved that.
We searched the inky
Nothingness Beyond for
Answers, but found none.
“There’s an ancient myth
About the stars, y’know,
Ever heard of it?”
“Of course,” she answered,
“We’ve all heard the myth.”
And then she began reciting
it as though she believed it;
As if it were some magical
Tale from her childhood:
“It is said that a long, long
Time ago,” she began, the
Way the elders spoke of it,
“The sky was an endless
Universe of star clouds,
Just like ours. Endless.
And we came here from
A different world with
A dying sun…”
“That has to be a myth,”
I broke in, “I mean, where
Could they have all gone?”
I took her in my arms.
“Billions of clouds, each
With billions of stars…
Imagine if it were true!”
We laid together that night,
Looking away from the fire
And into that murky void
Of unanswered questions
Beyond our own star cloud,
Knowing that we had each
Other, and yet somehow
Feeling very alone.
When Dawn
Comes to a city,
The people
Go berserk;
They hate
Alarm clocks
Crowing that
It’s time to
Go to work.
But when she’s
In the country,
The roosters
Proudly crow
To tell
The sleepy
Fields of crops
It’s time for
Them to grow.
About two weeks after I had surgery for both an Inguinal and an umbilical hernia, one of the incisions burst open in bed, drenching me with blood. I went to the hospital, and the doctor told me that it was infected, and they’d probably have to remove the meshes, and that I’d have both hernias back while we dealt with the infection, and then we’d have to start all over again. I thought the day couldn’t get any worse. I was wrong.
Just as I was trying to absorb the doctor’s words and wondering how I was going to do all that again, my phone rang. It was my brother, calling to tell me that his only son, Jason, had died from a drug overdose. It was on the Ides of March.
When the doctor opened me up again, the mesh still looked okay, so she left the incision open, and I have to pack it with gauze every day. I still have quite a gash, but it’s slowly healing from the inside. I’m actually going for a little stroll with my latest walkin’ stick, and I still hope to run a 5K race this summer.
michaeljordahl 