subtext

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We are All Broken Mirrors

Nothing is complicated.

Everything is simple,

if not simplistic.

Caught in worry, we

trouble our troubles

which are nothing really.


I read a poem today 

on the internet: the poet,

obviously under the influence

of Bukowski, judges the bartender 

for her intertwined tattoos

and for her storied fucking.


He ignores that what we write

often says more of the writer

than the subject of the poem.

We are the pen and the paper.

While in the slow dusk of life,

we see only with myopic eyes.


I’ve winnowed enough truth

from any number of lies to know

there is little difference, and

I’m not sure I trust anyone

anymore, especially myself

when it finally comes to that.

(June 30, 2025)