A duel purpose

I try to hold my balance on the
edge of this blade
whose hilt is in your firm grasp
and our history of incidental equipoise
clumsily
refuses to align-

would not any line
a muttering muse utter
true up to,
assist or desist us en guard
such strife-like loves twist on life
when the incision has been made

deeper, for us
while trying to maintain a sharp sense
of the point that tips
scales and armor
by design and intent

to inflict and to cradle conflict,
to penetrate and promptly
turn away-saying nothing
about the warm blood spilt
and simmering on the cool concrete
where we once made connection.


Painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) 'Duel after a masquerade ball', c. 1859 in Public domain.

Remember it so

By now,
neurologists all know
we lie
and believe what
is so
vivid enough to make
it so-
in our alternate reality,
what we call memory.

Who was there to witness
it so-
they can testify the truth
as it happened by view
they say-
it is,
so we believe it.

Duality seems determined
by a parallelogram sent
from another timeline
started forever ago,
we think we know
it so-
Infinite possibilities
project our stories,
our memories,
our-one time-
gone another way.

So tell it all ways, build
it so
intricate and elaborate, that
it is
simply the best story
only you know
by now.




Image of painting by John White Alexander [No restrictions or Public domain], Memories (1903) via Wikimedia Commons.

Prismatic Proliferation (Haiku)

                                                   Perfect

                  Refraction of  Incandesence

                Shining   ∞   Multiplicty

Image credit: Dispersive Prism, By Kelvinsong (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons.