Origami Microchap

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Cover art by Peter Roberts

•

the big why

why is there something?
because nothingness is much
too much to bear,
existence is
the lighter load,
the easier thing.

a coming together

minute flecks
of every color
merge to form
endless grey ocean
uncalm throughout –

all life, all things,
space, time, matter,
just drops, spray, splatter,
upward rain
briefly separated,
wild colors & shapes,

from tumbling waters:
fluid integrity,
(colors re-blend,
forms re-merge)
singular & complex
disparate unity,
unity in motion,
motion of ocean.

concise lovesong

the true likes of you
are few & hard to find:
that's why you are u-
nique, & always on my mind.

3 poli-hai

when voters get mad
they vote the ins out, & they
vote the out-theres in

folks desire simple
solutions, & only want
expected surprises

what's the greatest gift
the masses give their masters?
wishful ignorance

tidal flat

look at age's withered face
where dreams across thoughts' currents flow,
informing life with cunning grace
or stilling it with death's cool glow.

when life's tag-end seems too concise,
still time refuses to extend:
when what is finished must suffice,
the hours' progress will not slow.

those eyes observe a sordid sky
and struggle not to comprehend - 
for those who are about to die
death is not a sought-for end.

the fall

that autumn, his body, already frail,
lost substance, dwindled to nearly nothing -
his skin turned brown & paper thin.

the storm blew through & swept him up
into the air; what returned to earth
joined other leaves dancing in the wind.

•

Peter Roberts © 2022

phase shift

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Cover: Mosun by author

- 

 ode: descartes

i think
what i think
therefore
i am
as
i
am

-

decoding the dark

study the cryptology
of silence
to learn what is
written in night.

forest & field
call out to heedless
stars, saying
everything
without words. what
can we say with words?
we hear more when we listen
to no words; we say more
when we speak silence,
in darkness, alone.

•

 solitude

an obscure transit

cold fire —
friction-forced
static charge sputters
& flitters      a phantom
fish-net pattern
encircling enmeshing
the dull-metal hull
of a vast vessel
— star-faring freighter —
which sails silently
massively through
some dust dark nebula.

yes, the voices 

chaos speaks deeper
truth, saying nothing.
but what was asked?
there was no question
so any answer
seems unsought.
& still, from dark
corners of
skinned world - the coarse
the truth oozes,
& silence seeps,
until clear water
flows, to undermine
the roots of our indifference.

thoughts at a party 

from the tumult of
adolescence, you fell into
comfortable disquiet,
or perhaps it was
desperate routine
you sense all this
fading now, falling
from you; you expect
something else
now, something settled
& reliable
but i tell you now
it will not be
final when finally
you escape into that
amorphous grip
- idleness, retirement
that senescence, too,
will blossom finally
into death

•

Peter Roberts © 2019