Short Stories, Long Odds

(I don’t normally write poetry that a) rhymes; and b) isn’t funny. Here is an example of a poem that breaks both rules.)

Frayed bends of pages
shuffle from between
the ends of ages:
a notebook, seen

through many years
of a young man’s life;
While you shifted gears
from girlfriend to wife

and watched me grasp
the bare, stripped ends
of a wish by the wires, clasped
and burning in my hands,

what you must know now.
After fifteen years in,
what you must know now.