The human condition

Write me a letter

and I’ll see

a dictionary of you

and I

in between the dear

and period that is

the first in English

that goes on

when after the end

in my reply

and in the lack thereof.

*

I wasted my hands

wrangling this poem

and your neck.

*

People read poems

to get away from

things that are

not poetic

in the same way

a dung beetle

gets away from

cleanliness to bathe

in shit.

*

I am sorry

to tell you

that you are human

and it’s an unfortunate

condition of whimsy,

contradiction, sustained sadness,

and happenstance happiness

for which we have not

found a cure.