Jesse DeLong - Two Poems

***

The Greeks had it Wrong, About the Gods

What’s not in time

cannot imagine what it’s like to suffer

loss, and cannot measure the slowly eroding

cell, and as such, wouldn’t be like us—

The infinite wouldn’t be like anything

we could envision. An indescribable god, a god outside

of limits, yes, the Hebrews were wiser.

Smart enough to say

nothing, they couldn’t even name him. Look, the wind

hits the bushes and we attribute it to a predator

because there is no survival cost in false alarms.

So, too, do we give the gods agency of change.

Let them be not there—most accurate.

Accept this, though: the world is a better place

because we die.

To experience grief, loss, struggles, failures,

and to overcome them, once in a while, if we are lucky,

and to know by nature the world is zero

sum, that is not all, but part of being human:

“When we are tempted, as many of us are

at times, to wish that our own lives could go on forever,

often what we are wishing is that some version of our lives

we are now leading could continue without end.”

A version of our lives where we die.

This according to Scheffler, not my words, but copied

here, and passed on, hopefully without error—

It is its own sort of life. Watch it multiply in you.

***

5 may 2015 

And then there are days

when a woman drives down

from Mississippi to give

you a handjob

& she leaves right after. No

fuss. Ok. O

K. And then there are

days when the afternoon

showers are over

but clouds still filter

the sun. The wind’s

an unsweaty sheet. She pulls out

of the parkinglot, doesn’t

look back. Ok. O

K. You can watch the game.

And then there are days

when you don’t have

to ride the bus,

the store is across the street,

you buy a three dollar

bottle of wine, pork strips,

Tony’s marinade, & High

Life Light

for later. Ok. So she left

early. You can watch

the game. You pour a glass

of wine for yourself.

You are here now.

The glass gleams.

The wine drips

down the stem.

This is

what

it’s

like.