Easy Shot
My closet is not that deep.
It’s only made of glass.
You can see my heart on the shelf,
Beating unprotected.
The glass is not bullet proof.
It’s easily pierced upon setting crosshairs.
I’ve tried many reinforcements,
But snipers hit it again.
The heart stops briefly, gets bored, then
Beats through its many injuries.
The snipers laugh from their blind,
High fiving each other.
They have postponed the circular firing squad
For one more day.
The squad is forming, but I don’t get
Invited because I am just practice.
Just as well since I have lousy aim.
My heart just isn’t in the battle.
Our Place and Theirs
Time and space
Are just words,
Meaningless precepts in
Our attempts to explain
Forces and dimensions
Across the multiverse
When we are just trying
To learn our place in it.
The truth is that we are
Travelers in time and space
Moving about at every
Moment in our lives
To the next moment
And the next place
Until it finally ends,
And we all fall part
In death and decay.
But maybe there’s a hope
That as our sun supernovas,
Scattering our atoms across
The universe, that
Our tears and our sweat
Will assemble again
To form the tears and
The sweat of other beings
Born of other stars.
Though they may
Never know on
Any conscious level
What happened to
Make us cry and perspire,
Even though they
May never have
The chance to learn
From our mistakes,
Hopefully somehow
They may take comfort,
Managing to benefit.
Maybe somehow
Our tears and sweat,
By becoming theirs,
Will help them find
Their space as they spend
Their time in the multiverse.
Maria DePaul is a writer based in Washington, DC, whose work has been featured in many publications, most recently 50 Haikus, Poetry Quarterly, Three Line Poetry and “Nine Lives: a Life in 10 Minutes Anthology.”
Bindweed Magazine 