Simplify, as in Forget
To turn off the stove
or close the refrigerator door,
such brazen attempts to win
the aging contest or blur the mirror
of clarity — you won’t say
which to blame or praise
or whether intent is implicit in
action or if I should hold my breath.
What is the freezing point of love?
When you were cold, whose
belly did you curl into, whose ear
gathered your breath and returned it
warm and with the promise of bees
producing honey? Your name floats
above my outstretched hand,
and unable to grab it, I blink and turn
away. Nothing works as it should.
I exhale. You push the door shut.
* * *
“Simplify, as in Forget” first appeared in the print journal Good Works Review in February 2018, and is included in the anthology Lost & Found: Tales of Things Gone Missing, Wagon Bridge Publishing, 2019.
O at the Edges 
Very nice
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Thanks very much, Beth.
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Lovely.
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Thank you, Leonard!
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Fantastic poem, one I really relate to a lot these days.
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Thanks very much, Michelle. It’s life!
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I find this a bit uncomfortable … stirs up anxiety … a general unsureness about aging implications. Been reading about lifespan probabilities … sounds like I have years to go … and in some sense they’ll all be downhill. Yikes! Will get to a point where nothing works as it should … waiting for someone to come push the door shut!
(But not there yet …)
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I think I’d been feeling some particular discomfort when I wrote this poem… Let’s keep those doors open!
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A beauty, Bob.
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Thanks, Cate. Let’s hope for many more pleasant days before we get to this point.
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I think I’m already there, but don’t tell my daughters (yes I did leave that gas burner on all night…but I’m being extra careful now, really) (K)
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Eek!
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I’ve been obsessive about checking since…
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I, too, have forgotten to turn off the stove a few times. It’s disconcerting.
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Just acerbic enough to make it all the more beautiful. The strangeness of now, always an intersection fraught with peril…so momentary. And, yet, incredibly meaningful. Or implicating. Or reflective. Or bittersweet (the best chocolate!). Or adjustment-worthy?
Or it-is-what-it-is. Hard, though, to take it as flat when it comes to your words. Thank you, my friend. This one got to me!
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Your kind and thoughtful comment has made my day. Thank you!
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