A snail that makes its sure slow way
persists. It does not need to say:
"My locomotion is okay
For what I do and where I go."
It goes, and does. It isn't "slow."
It has the pace of those who know
Their time's their own, and what they do
is vital, and they'll make it through.
What difference if their tasks are few,
Their track is humble and unseen?
Their fervor for their life is keen!
They have a bead on what they mean.
AGAINST PROVIDENCE
If accident denotes an act
that did not have to happen, fact
is accidental, only set
by chance that has not happened yet.
FICTIONS
The part of anyone you know
is just a part, and even though
your knowledge of that part may grow,
Or, even possibly, extend
to other parts, still, at the end,
it's partial knowledge you depend
Upon to parse into a whole,
a fiction you assign a role,
imagining you can control
That self-created self, which plays
along—or doesn't—knowing ways
to mask the mystery it stays.
FALSE CONSTRUCTS
False constructs lead to false conclusions
that lead to greater, worse confusions,
which throw all meaning into doubt
until false constructs sort it out.
SOMETHING LIKE KARMA
Something like Karma makes the only sense.
You live; you die. Yet there is recompense
for how you did it. Something's keeping track.
And, if you're good enough, you don't come back.
These poems will appear in a new collection by Bruce Bennett, entitled Something Like Karma, to be published by Clandestine Press in late Spring.
Another new collection, Subway Figure, will be published by Orchises Press in
September. Bruce Bennett is the author of eight books of poetry and numerous
poetry chapbooks. He teaches English and Creative Writing and directs the
Visiting Writers Series at Wells College in Aurora, New York.
