"I aim for a radical stability" -- written in March 2016--in 7-syllable lines



I aim for a radical stability

I aim for a radical
stability in my slow,
hungry assimilation

of the chaos of random
existence into the warm
incarnate human, but as

you can read, subtlety is
not in my style toolbox.  I
lost this tool when I woke up

and pulled the curtain to face
a painful sun one Sunday
morning.  That it was Sunday

morning was significant
in that it was not on a
Saturday, but the day that

comes soon after and, also,
the one day before the day
that the old seven-unit

slog would begin all over
again.  Then was when, daily,
I manufactured shadows

of subtlety to plan and
mechanize in my mind the
non-solid future of my

day. Now the painful sun this
Sunday morning has, in an
instant, vaporized that dark

machine, turned it into an
oxygen-rich emptiness
beyond the gate of my breath. 

And in this space, Friday, at
2:40 p.m., I stab
delicately at these black

keys against silver, these black
keys that display these letters,
numbers, symbols of sound, and

puzzles of meaning, white and
subtly lit, that channel my
radical stability.

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