The Vaccinated Escape

Wish to wish for something different,
Aspire to a different intent—
Better yet, wish to never wish.

Here is a cabin in the snow,
Impervious to winter storms,
Full-shelved pantry and library.

Its real magic isn’t the fact
That it’s perfectly built and stocked
With supplies for body and mind.

Its real magic is that it is
Completely inoculated
Against every cabin fever.

Hide out all winter, you won’t wish
For anything but to be there.

The Late

Somebody didn’t update

The biographical note

Terribly well—he will serve

In that position until

His death the following spring.

Mortality, that matter

Of tense. Whoever did it

Will continue to do it

Until they were finally

Relieved of that position.

Maybe they were a prophet,

However, maybe never

Committed to any tense,

Maybe served who will not wait.

But Then Again Who Doesn’t?

If you’ve ever introduced
Yourself to someone else, you’ve
Lived as person animal,

Maybe sometimes regretting
The person part or the part
That stays fully animal,

Maybe sometimes full of doubt
About your true personhood
Or your animal nature.

Nonetheless a portmanteau,
Half-empty or overstuffed,
Being double, you’ve wondered

At the worth of how you’ve lived,
And if you’ve really lived it. . .

Immortal Drag

You are therefore. You are thus.
Consequently, you are then
Ergo, and accordingly

You are for this reason. So.
Igitur, you are. What is
To be done, if anything

About this? Tunc, nunc, nothing
Much. Let someone else decide
When it is, therefore, you aren’t.

When the gods translate Hamlet,
The play is always put on
In immortal modern dress,

But the soliloquy seems
To be so poorly expressed.

A Moving Story

You won’t have to dry your eyes.
A U-Haul is not involved.
The story will move itself.

It can. It’s autofiction.
It has its own set of wheels.
It’s pretty hard to follow,

Racing to its conclusion,
The point at which it breaks down
In the middle of the road.