BLACK HEART BLACK
HEART BLACK HEART

what were we
talking about
when the door
swung open
on the mystery
we were describing
i think
the same thing
differently
the way i see it
good and evil
harmonize
more or less
in us
the way you see it
beauty pulls
hiddenness
over itself
or it doesn’t
therefore one’s look
of satisfaction
may or may not be
related to
the successful management
of one’s affairs
i would be gentle
regardless
and still extract
the maximum benefit
of the certainty
of my future
dwelling place
do you suppose
a person need call
attention to themself
in order to be taken
by surprise
the usefulness
of a newborn babe
i aspire to it
it is considerable
and perfectly maddening
what cannot be denied
an unyielding faith
you barely notice
enters with you
into the house
of bad years
to breathe and grow
in courage
it is an homage
to who knows what
a bottomless simplicity
maybe
i was a fool
not to become
a visionary
fool
fearing not
what others fear
that is the thing
of value
and choosing
a victim
that is not
oneself
now i cannot help
picking at what
can never be
taken away
if i become ugly
in the process
it is not to abandon
desirability
i am determined
and exhaustible
on the whole
but without self-pity
weigh somewhat less
when i shut it off
it lingers
suspended
half a second
before
slapping the earth
like the waters
of a fountain
i seem to have fallen
behind the days
of my life
what do you do
with somebody like that

 

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Adam Soldofsky is the author of Memory Foam (Disorder Press), which won a 2017 American Book Award. His series of screenshot poems, The Blind Swordsman Poems, can be found at: http://theblindswordsmanpoems.tumblr.com.