Abstract no. 5

I studied the core sediment samples from your heart

The records show prehistorically your heart was malice

Microscopic fossils mark displacements and loss

I found demarcations of hopes dashed — and untimely deaths —

Near the bottom — a striation — an icy section where nothing thrived

How could something come of this?

How could anything grow?

I have abandoned this study

I leave the abstract to you

“I liked my little hole, / Its window facing a brick wall.”

— Charles Simic / Hotel Insomnia