Was postmodern living really so bad with its postmodern lampshades, access to the worldwide internet’s daft shenanigans, the great show of hip hop, happiness, high-risk mortgages, fields of discourse plowed with ultimate unassailable truth? You are a thread in the fabric while the needle behind you weaves or is woven into the greater piece. Time has a way of doing the dishes, the throbbing insect about to pop in the heat, it is you. Don’t bust too soon, there is much to see, much left of you though you are bothered by it, this branching out of options, river ways into plangent, brilliant light where intention flows. You have your plans but the world was not made for it. There is sense, gladly, no matter that it isn’t exact, it is sincere (sometimes) and you are OK with that, or not, and time goes on. Either way you are reclining on a sofa for a moment thinking of all this in a body that is aroused with grief for all the things you could have been or done, loving that you are as you are, pretty excited about what’s next, avoiding congestive heart failure, all these minutes in the serene light in the backend of day, reading a book, wondering what you’ll have for dinner later this evening, this very evening on Earth.
Caley O’Dwyer’s poems have appeared in AMERICAN POETRY REVIEW, ALASKA QUARTERLY REVIEW, PRAIRIE SCHOONER, CREAM CITY REVIEW, ZOCALO PUBLIC SQUARE and other venues. He is a three-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize and has received the Academy of American Poets University Prize, as well as a Helene Wurlitzer grant for poetry. A painter and psychotherapist in private practice, Caley teaches creative writing and clinical psychology at Antioch University Los Angeles. His first book, FULL NOVA, was published by Orchises Press in 2001. Other examples of his work can be found at caleyodwyer.com.
Author photo courtesy of Audrey Mandelbaum.
Featured Photo by Marianne Krohn on Unsplash
Sentience Literary Journal 