Member-only story
Past Life Problem
poem
I read the Peterson Field Guide for Feng Shui
once in a past life, perhaps when I was a grasshopper
during the Ming Dynasty, chasing the fanning women
around the temple gardens — for reasons unbeknownst to me
though karmic I suppose, the gist of the book was squashed
under the straw slippers of memory — but now and then
I find myself snapping at a bedroom mirror or chirping
brightly at the low beam of a patio, longing
for a pair of hands might scoop me up
lay me rest in the dirt.
Vic Spandrio 2024
The religion of the short poem, in every age and in every literature, has a single commandment: Less is always more. The short poem rejects preamble and summary. It’s about all and everything, the metaphysics of a few words surrounded by much silence. The short poem is a match flaring up in a dark universe – Charles Simic