Apprehensively (poem)
Apprehensively
Everything was bet that day on ends
Still his mind hedged with a handbook
He had created through practice, of devil’s arcana
He disliked the internet, but learned its self-delusion…
not what can be, but is aspired to
the great and wealthy totter on a temple
tiered to the heavens stacked on shaky backs
the world’s Insignificant shouldering this
a necessary dream of magic
all things taught to you by fairy tales
a ship to harbor bearing chests of gold
but too the exonerating witness
There, in the land of smoke, where time moves
if we befriend it and ask of it kindly
to be as we would, time moves
The quest is complete
complete, while we labor on to glory
Then to bury evidence
to dig it up and sow a great enchantment
My accusers, realize! I command you
Conspirators like crouched assassins
See your joy, a petal unfold
and they would have it
Cover your face again with the mask
Tulip men and women of the spring
Let untimely chills jet themselves past
And splay your shelterings before this sun of…
Of yeoman’s work, this man who has lost his faith
Will I dare happiness, let my bequeathing be reviled
Not for myself, you see. All vanity I surrender like thistledown
I am in the light detachment of departing my career
I will go to the mountains and watch for comets
After comets, I will watch for waves
Apprehensively
Her Day
(2021, Stephanie Foster)