Not for Getting

You won’t get what you want
Unless you want something
Gettable, which is bound

To be disappointing,
Bound up in the fact world,
As it would have to be,

In which case it wasn’t
Really worth the wanting.
What can’t disappoint you,

Now that’s what you should want,
But you’d be fortunate
Just to know what that was.

Oh, you think that you do?
Know what you want, do you?
If, when imagining

Success, you can’t resist
Adding extra touches,
Then no, you don’t know it.

Deletions Are, on Average, More Deleterious than Single Nucleotide Variants

Too bad no one gets to shop
In advance for either one.

If you have a deletion
Or single nucleotide

Variant, it’s not your choice.
And you never so much have

A mutation as find out
There’s something odd about you

Late or soon. And there you are.
Averages don’t mean a thing

To one-off sports of nature.
And you will still have to be

Part of some society,
An assigned identity,

Which you’ll shape as best you can,
With responsibilities

To the people around you
Who are, on average, not you.

Correspondence

It has to match
Experience,
And, if not yet,
You have to find

Experience
That matches it.
Then, yes, it’s math.
True, proofs are built

On internal
Logic, but you
Trust internal
Logic, starting

With things like squares
And circles drawn
In the dust, since
Terms first matched dust.

Someone’s in Anguish, That’s All You Know

To bark out, to cry, to scold,
Moan, wail, weep, lament. The art
Appeals to the composer

And the priest—how many songs
And rituals are laments?
But it’s rare cries of despair

Are as moving as they’re moved,
Sympathetic responses
Of the nerves notwithstanding.

To really feel the breakdown
Is reserved for the broken.
The wail is a reaction,

A sequel to suffering
And an extension. No art
Is equal to suffering.

Permanent Opiate

Single dose, and then you’re done.
Never want another one.
Never come down from your peace.

Never crave more sweet release.
Never feel the pain again.
Never need to scheme or plan,

Be a dealer, be a whore,
Do real harm to get some more.
Take your dose and be content

With all things you can’t prevent,
Single dose, and then you’re done.
Never need another one.

No One Else Is Involved

The charm and the problem
Of journalists is that they’re all people.

The problem and the charm of gangsters
Is that they’re people. The charm

And all the problems of farmers,
Scientists, ministers, builders, reformers,

Revolutionaries, musicians, accountants,
Doctors, teachers, and mothers

Is that they’re people. The problem
And the charm of children and adults

Is that they’re people. Look around,
It’s all people, and not just living

People, making life easier, awful, possible
For people. It’s people all the way down.