subtext

• •

What Remains is the Work

(8 of pentacles-reversed, rider-white)

I’m not sure

why i continue

to write,

to stack thirty years

of notebooks neatly

upon the shelf

like dead flowers 

from old lovers—

But I do write,

cutting lines of memory

like a stonewright

with a chisel,

exacting

bits of my vanity

with each stroke

of the pen until 

what is left

is, perhaps,

made more

by what has been

taken away.

(October 8, 2023)