|
Table of Contents
Click page 1
Click page 2
Click page 3
Click page 4
Click page 5
Click page 6
Click page 7
Click page 8
Click page 9
Click page 10
Click page 11
Click page 12
Click page 13
Click page 14
Click page 15
Click page 16
Click page 17
Click page 18
Click page 19
Click page 20
The Blog Bog
The Mag Rack
|
HOMAGE TO SEXTUS EMPIRICUS
1
Philosophy
brings her so much
pleasure
Charlotte has considered
Switching her major
From musical theater
To an equally insupportable one
and sends me
a text message signed
Sextus Empiricus
"in our
individual
peculiarities
we differ in
such a way
that some
people digest
beef more
easily than
rock-fish, and
get diarrhea
from weak
Lesbian wine"
To which I respond
that while she might
go to sleep with the Stoics
she will probably
wake up
with Skeptics
|
2
Charlotte calls me
to explain
her latest message from Sextus
points to differences
between people and behaviors
that make it
difficult to draw hard
or fast
conclusions:
"He (Sextus)
Goes on to talk about
Tibido the Roman
a soldier who
eats human brains
We don't know much more
about him (Tibido) who
like so many others
remains lost
in the mists
of history."
today I find another text
in which she
again cites (Sextus)
the authority
on keeping
an open
mind
"Some people
say they would
rather eat
their father's head
than beans."
Paul Pines__
|
THE AWKWARD YEARS
Sixteen-year-old Charlotte
in back of the van closes her math book
then comments that her friend Caitlin
shares her dark humor.
"She's the only one who laughs
at my dead baby jokes."
My wife in the passenger seat
presses an invisible brake
while I make no attempt to fill
the silence.
"What's funnier
than a dead baby?" Charlotte asks,
then answers:
"A dead baby
in a clown suit."
Our daughter's laughter shatters
like a wine glass.
Her mother leans forward
to pick up the pieces
I watch our baby
in the rear view mirror
presiding at her own
wake.
Paul Pines
|
DOMESTICITY II
Hard getting out of bed this morning
the day's obligations loom
call
the plumber
doctor
remember
Charlotte's Youth Theater performance
at the mall
I walk out of the bedroom on sore feet
pass my wife at the computer playing solitaire
in the bathroom I'm suddenly alone
with all the essays and poems
I'll never write
turn on the tap
and remember
last night's dream
about
Chinese girls
kneeling by a stream
along the Silk Route
sipping water from
hands like
tea cups
Paul Pines
|
