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BLACK HOLE
The universe is populatedby an as yet unknownnumber of black holes,points of hyper-density whose gravityis so great thatanything gettingtoo close cannever escape,or so we wereoriginally told. Hawking suggestedthere is hopefor escape, someenergy closeto the eventhorizon mayradiate backinto the universe. In the blackhole that wasmy family,I, luckily, provedto be thatescaping energy.
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Advice to The Beginning Haikuist
Now take up the penand write economicallylest you run out of First published in Defenestration, Vol. XVI issue 2 August 2019
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WE ARE THE PEOPLE
We are the people, Who heard the glass breakingthat night as we huddled at home, Who inhaled the smokeof the Holy books as they burned, Who tried to flee but hadnowhere to go, always turned away, Who visited cosmetic doctorsto reshape our noses to look like the others Who adopted names to helperase a potentially…
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PRISONER
This morning, I am certainthe earth pulled me down more strongly,as though gravity needed to reassert itself,having lost someone in its gripto the virus, a common complaintas we stumble through still another year. I fought it off course, the birdsin the wetland at once admiringmy effort and laughing at what they knewwould ultimately be a…
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LIAR
It is a strange feeling to discover that youhave been made a liar by your own DNA. For years I was Jewish to the core, halfat least Sephardic, Portuguese, and thatnot merely extracted but fully blooded. My diet at Passover expanded greatly,no longer dictated by Northerners whoeasily banned that which they did not grow. But…
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A NAME
Someone said that you must name somethingbefore you can really know it, and wehave gone about naming everything, evenas we know less and less about those things. We have grown so adept at naming things,that we have created multiple namesfor the things that we find the most problematic,for then they can be more easily ignored.…
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BACK LOOKING
On the worst day, of the worstweek, or even just a day, like mostthat did not go the way you want,step outside at night if the sky is clearand stare upwards at the universe. Realize that you are seeingmore than a monumental collectionof celestial bodies, that you areexperiencing so much history,and moments older thanmankind itself,…
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IMAGINE THAT
You said you can only acceptwhat is real and tangible,everything elseis a delusion or figment. I cannot accept your premiseas a generalization, it eliminatesso much, for what you call realmay be otherwise to me. And given that you are notalways present, perhapswhen you are not, when youare not actually tangibleyou are a delusion, and thatis…
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COSMIC CONUNDRA
They say that someof the rings of Saturnare braided.They also say thatRapunzel’s hairwas braided.I am a skeptic for when I stareat Saturnthrough the old binocularsI see two fuzzyastigmatic spots of lightand Rapunzel has gonepunk, and I see onlyan oversizednose ring.The sad thing isthat Jupiter’s red spotis showing signsof becominga melanoma. First published in The Post…
