Solstice

The darkness comes
as early as it will.
All the voices stop
as the children begin
twirling slowly
on the playground
of the church,
arms outstretched,
mittens dangling,
gazing upwards.
Never-ending snowflakes
are falling everywhere
out of the darkness
onto their faces, into
their open mouths,
no longer cold
or hungry or scared
or bored by the world.

Mixtape

Back in the day
an inspired mixtape
could break
even the most
immaculate
think tanks
down
into pieces
of pure sex.

The End

What does one actually do
at the end of the world?

You might try
to ascertain
if it’s the end
of the entire universe
or simply the end of you—
not that you could tell.

You could of course
just run your whole
sorry self
right up into it,

but instead,
for once in your life,
you actually wait for it
and take in the view.

Your sun is setting,
and the Great Nothing
you see before you
is so beautiful, so magnificent,
that your breath is taken away
one last time,
and then you
are no longer you,
if ever
you were

Sherlock Holmes

famously banished
the impossible
from his solutions
but always let it linger
just outside the frame
like an actor
waiting in the wings—
never going on
but compelling all levels
of the probable
to look it in the eye
before taking the stage.