Painful, Fresh, Inevitable

You develop the resources
to prevail over time – regularly,
rhythmically exhale, inhale –
and yet regale your deepest
fantasies sufficiently to stoke
the hottest ardor – thus to barter,

maybe, for the chance to make
them flesh – and then accept
the failure (painful, fresh,
inevitable) of the sale – as you
develop the resources to prevail.
Over time, which is to say

with a magnificent fine disregard
for time of any kind, interior
or ticking on a clock, you may
at last transmute at least
the sharpest edges off the shock
of being here – create a smoother

and less fearsome apparatus.
Like Lee surrendering to Grant
at Appomattox, you discover
you’ve capacity to cede control,
post-fight, to fate: learn not
to choke on love, or favor hate.



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