Quick Note

A Quick Note

a friend writes in a quick note
that “we all” want me to be rid of the sorrow
my mind lunges quickly toward the false rhyme of “hollow”
which is what I think I should be
were I suddenly purged of sorrow
but I know, doubtless, that this is false
as the rhyme of sorrow and hollow
which leads me to the next false rhyme of shallow
which I oftentimes wish I were
but this too is false, aslant of Truth

“I am what I am,” pipes in Popeye
on a breath redundant with spinach
strong as hurricane winds and waves
tumbling over floodwalls nowhere I know
at this moment, yet not so long ago . . .

Sorrow is my dearest friend
standing here beside me all my life
never to desert or betray me—

but perhaps this is another rhyme out of tune
perhaps sorrow has been the demon on my shoulder
all these years whispering obscene
and absurd lies into my subconscious . . .

David M Pitchford
26 April 2009