Paula Cisewski




Hell, MI



I lied about believing the lie.
I’m tired of the water running out.
That the ocean is endless, yet I will
still be thirsty when I’m dead,
buzzed on the miniscule reflection of stars,
and the moon – that shovel with a face:
some truths make nothing better.

This is no kind of sonnet; I’m sorry.  
Poor moon I don’t want. Poor
Shakespeare we can deposit in a boat.
A single day keeps on ending
like a diorama after the science fair.
Like a book of psalms. Separate
pillboxes. Whatever

we ingest and then we are changed.
I could have chosen to keep this to myself.




Purgatory, ME



When we think we become a structure.
Box-like? Sometimes.  Still, not very
cleverly, we mostly react to things.
Like getting alarmed by an alarm.    
Or by the used up goodnesses.
Another example is how no one

ever asks what a key is. We always
ask what a key is
to. There is no
key to a doll head in the road,
its eyes stabbed out. Somewhere
in a house on my block there remains
a box a doll should go in.

At least, I don’t recognize the key
in that scenario, which could mean
my original intention may not have been
the best. That has only just occurred to me.





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