eliminating comforting words
seems an appropriate strategy
to counter the hours
relentlessly expanding
the fabric of the mind
between midnight and dawn.

left behind are words with letters
like ceramic blades
well suited to cut
sharp silhouettes into the darkness.
tau, Ez 9:4-6, KJV, they read,
but no comprehension follows.

Slay utterly old and young,
both maids, and little children,
and women
but come not near any man
upon whom is the mark.
let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity.

old testament, yet one eternal god,
this is the fabric of the mind, a thin membrane.

clearly, another cut is needed
to calculate the rate of emission
of radiant energy, radiant flux,
electromagnetic radiation
emitted by charged particles
while traveling through space.

light is
beyond that dark membrane
of the mind’s fabric,
serving as a selective barrier
between origin and time.

compared with the luminosity
seeping through those merciless cuts
i am
but an ordinary lie.

 

and so,

forsaking conventional wisdom,

i cut out letters of sober inquiry

with ceramic precision,

exchanging the comfort of an ordinary lie

for the shimmering beauty

of inconsequential pain.