John Fuller

Misprint

Stealth is its policy. It lies in wait. It is no respecter of age. It turns up late Or far too early, without an invitation. You may not notice this miscalculation By your compositor, this turned letter Or metathesis in the river of text That flows, page after page after page, for better Or worse,

Epitaph for a Star

A chance in a million: he was perfectly cast In the role of his own life, though he almost flipped When told it was all in the future, and not in the past, And someone (who?) had forgotten to give him the script. He tried his damnedest, but there were other factors That made the

Relief

To draw conclusions from the precise force Exerted by a handshake or a kiss Is to confuse a delta’s civilities With the ambiguous thunder of its source, And what the fingers or the lips endorse Could be misleading. It comes down to this: Emotions are such things as you might miss. The river is the

Serenade

Come to the garden, that familiar place Where life renews itself against all odds. Untightening buds act out their memory, And dying seems a momentary pause. Our star that took an afternoon to sink Hangs in reluctance from the darkening tree Like an amused and philosophic eye Penning his treatise of the out-of-doors. We are

My Future

I am your memories. They are not me. So it feels strange to be remembered by These relics of my personality. Although you mourn me, is it really me You mourn, or thoughts of me that make you cry? I am your memories. They are not me. Ridiculous, such immortality! To live like this, to

Memory

While in the mirror I’m an aging face More or less the same day after day,   In the mind’s darker space There are these handles to enticing doors  Of occasional abrupt transition,   Doors of entry, doors   Of intercommunications   Obeying the same laws.  So many rooms! Such impatience!  Backwards and forwards I make my way With