Temporarily Eternal

No more books or music

for tonight,

and nothing new

on cable, nothing to clean

or cook or suffer through.

Just sighs between

the minutes as this white

typhoon of moonlight

tries to shake the room

and all that’s right

within it. The clock face

wears a sheen

of secrecy so bright

I start to lean

into the breeze

each second makes in flight.

In other words,

I let the evening whet

my tired shoulders

voluntarily.

I feel the hours cinch,

and carefully

remove my watch

along with all its debts.

It isn’t like me

not to flinch, and yet

I’m still: eternal,

temporarily.

“Temporarily Eternal” first appeared in The New Criterion, vol. 35, no. 6, 2017.