Found a used copy of Wisława Szymborska’s View With a Grain of Sand at Third Place Books this afternoon. It had an inscription on the title page. Normally, I would pass up such a copy unless the inscription were by the author. But this one drew me in enough that I knew I had to buy it anyway. It also inspired this poem: Continue reading

I wrote this at the Green Lake public library while waiting for friends. Since I was not using a computer, I uploaded this photo as a placeholder. The following is my slightly edited version:

I eye
the man standing over there
with suspicion

He looks like me
but not like me
like those photographs of the suspects
they show on the news
as details of the massacre
slowly come out

I know it’s wrong
to assume the sins of a few
belong to the many
but I still assess my risk
and think about leaving
or finding a little-accessed corner
where I would have a better chance
of being unseen, unnoticed
before I sit down

This is not a way to live

How do we do it?

Why?

(17 March 2019)