Writer's Block

Writer's Block
“#ds139 "Writer's Block"” by Sharon Drummond, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Whatever touch I had is gone.
Maybe I never had it. That would be better.
One can't throw away a non-belonging.
Can't chase after the dump truck
for some treasure that isn't there.
 
What if it's the desire for touch?
Now that would be grim. One can debate
its source. Nature vs. nurture, etc.
But to give up smacks of fatalism.
May as well become a prokaryote that
lives inside those who have or want touch.

Then I wouldn't go through the motions
or rue my idle days. Wouldn't think or
be thought of. Wouldn't know my role
in the nutrient cycle. That without me
Earth is just another dead, spinning rock.
 
At times I labor on a multi-volume ode to
the single-celled organism and all the dumb,
blind building blocks of my wasted genius.
After one broken line, I’m overwhelmed by
buckling walls, by florid mold—an engineer
duty-bound to condemn his half-built home.

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rain clings to pinecones like wet feathers,
the evening slips into its velvet gown,

and starlight pitter-patters on my head
like drops of gallium. I am thankful

the day is dying, for I have forgotten how
to live. Who wrote those words belongs

to an empire that collapsed under its
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wash clean the marble statues of gods
and a cheery sun
reads aloud your sweet inscriptions,
nor when awed children skip through museums,
nor accordion-song fills the subway,
nor a stranger does another stranger
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