How to salvage the catastrophe of learning

from all the other ones? This is not a new theory

of authenticity, nothing so piebald as that — it’s more

a way of coloring the plane

divided into sections by the Romance

of the Rose, the edges like petals that can

fall into step or a grocery bag

with equal indifference. I beg you, do not pretend

to the throne of the most-streamed artist — 

so many reps at the gym

go into that, so many refills

of the fog machine of the self, which, listen: one

time I was so afraid

of dying I bargained off some bad

outcomes on god, if he would let me live, and now

like The Lover, Diversion, Mirth & Gladness

I have to watch it all come true