Tuesday 7 May 2019

He calls me an intellectual



He calls me an intellectual

but I know it’s code—meaning
my mind wanders aimlessly through the forest
while he replaces the filter to the UV lamp
or pulls weeds between shrubs
notices the lapsed club membership
leafs through cookbooks for a chicken recipe
scans the Internet for flights to Toronto
sees cobwebs on the skylight which he must keep
to himself, as if


I would never notice webs created by
one or more of the seven hundred spider species
of British Columbia and search the Internet myself
for its name which accidentally takes me
to a strange image of a rat-like creature
who has a tail coming out of its chest and wonder
if it might be a lab-test rat or an entirely
new species, and whether something should be done
about that


like further research
to be informed, to have knowledge
the scientific proof, to know the facts
that escape as soon as I try to pin them down
fearing he will ask
are you sure about that
and I must confess
I am never sure about anything.

(from Infinite Power, Ekstasis 2016. Cover painting is from Paul Grignon http://www.paulgrignon.com)

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