Barter

No one knows of a god,
No one believes in one,
Who’s above bargaining

A bit with deity—
If you this; I will that.
Prayers and sacrifices,

Sometimes good deeds, sometimes
Good meat on an altar,
Sometimes sheer devotion—

If you save me, I’ll live
To your greater glory.
People are bargainers.

Trade with other people
Is how modern humans
Overran this planet.

There’s no situation
So dire someone won’t try
Bargaining out of it,

But some situations
Yield no human partners.
So? You trade anyway—

As a cat will make mouse
Out of a spot of light,
As a bird will display

Feathers to a mirror,
A human being will
Bargain hard with bare air.

The Have a Heart Trap

You could make a story
In which someone wakes up
And starts a normal day

Only to realize
They don’t have any pulse,
And there’s a strange hollow

Just under the sternum
Where the heart ought to be.
Then, in the normal way

Of magical stories,
You could trace out events
Generated by this

Peculiar heartlessness,
A tale of heartless life,
As the premise led you.

But it wouldn’t be true.
Your heart goes on beating,
Both writing and reading.

Perish the Thought

There was the body. There was
The note. All you had to do
Was call it in. The body,

However, was still breathing.
Now what? All you had to do
Was call it in. You shook it

By the shoulders, called to it,
Tried to wake it up yourself,
No luck. All you had to do

But you didn’t. You waited
Alone with it to see what
Would happen, and finally

You gave up. You called it in.
In the hospital, the drugs
Jolted the thought back to life.

Where You Are in Consequence

Your neighbors who do
The heavy lifting,
The work, the voodoo
With you in the skull,
Decide before you

And recall as well
Ahead of the thought
That you knew that smell—
Others remembered
First, but you can’t tell.

You can’t disagree,
Either. What recalled
Told you what was seen,
And you saw. No cause,
But chains don’t come free.

The Dark Night Heron

That a bird could be your god

Come to guide you through the night,

That seems like a thought for strength,

And do people, honestly,

Ever believe anything

Outrageously unlikely

Except as it gives them strength

Or since someone else told them

It was true to give them strength?

Being reasonably smart

About your own frailty

Can make you crazy for faith,

And being certain of doom

At the individual

Level can keep you searching

For signs you’ll handle it well,

Contribute something worthwhile,

Extend a truth immortal,

Although you’re anything but.

Wouldn’t it be like a drug

Of tremendous potency

To know your personal god

Floated along on black wings,

Bright-eyed beside you? The night.

Action’s Labyrinth Hides an Agile Minotaur

Intent is an echo

Calling back from the wall

Of durable context,

This is the decision!

The self’s at an angle

As always, and blocked off

From the original

Shout of the decision.

As far as self’s concerned,

Self got the message first,

And now self is taking

The decision itself.

The wall laughs at self,

Yet another echo

Of laughs from someone else.