Grief loves itself.
Tweaks the oblivious liver
with sympathy and a good deal of beer
and then laments in altered form
accumulated absences thievable as litter
Chipped-off phrases ramble in our heads
Pithily filling the silence with tremolos, trills
and splashy percussion,
every twenty-third thought hysterical.
Proactive mourning is less toxic than a truth
unentered, a life conducted by default
When repercussions arrive at our teacups,
price tag still attached
Body, brain and genome lock in
a pas de trois of mini-deaths sustaining life
Pinned to the cellophane the sovereign within
whose eloquence evades the data base
I sing of nimble synthesis, that ancient province
where choice and chance take turns at bat
The only two verbs relevant
to electrons are seek and avoid