The prone Diogenes asks Alexander the Great
to move out of his sunlight, his testicles sagging
and visible, stained with last night’s glorious wine drunk.
As a bee dances first before it dies for its queen,
so the nuclear sunset looks glorious before it reaches you.
Alexander laughs and moves to one side.
An irradiated lily puts its blossoms away for a time
when the air is safe to perfume again.
Scratch, jack, bones,
skins, buckage, bank.
The nicknames change over time.
Did you know your distant ancestors worked no more
than four hours a day to earn their living?
They did not have a twenty four hour fire hose
of distractions, though.
Living was distraction enough.
If you find yourself addicted to electronic distractions
in the interstitial time between work and sleep, try saving a third of your income.
Your income is the congealed energy you traded your time for.
This practice will help wake you up.
And don’t forget to write.
Once there was a seance that left everyone with a shimmering feeling of being inside on a snowy day.
Even the TV sat up and took notice, stopping its own snowing.
One can be in two places at the same time if you don’t mind being both substance and shadow.
Now the winter won’t let go.
The birds still call each other by their winter names.
They resemble maracas that can’t stop clacking when they are left on the table. Music swallowed by frozen water.
It is still beautiful to see a newborn in the womb, feet askew on the glass skin.
An aquarium fish looks out at you
and asks if we are related.
