This poem was inspired by the book The Man Who Watched Trains Go By by Georges Simenon
Kees Popinga
to pretend with all your might
for fear that one slip
& you’ll find yourself carried
like so much dead wood on the waves
to stop pretending
yanking at the door of life
till it bursts open & the light
spills over your face
you make a pledge of fealty
death its only end
as if the human soul were
a bright unchanging diamond
rather than a sand castle
with the tide approaching
the little architect long since gone
leaving a half-buried plastic shovel
/ / /
Jason Crane
19 January 2018
State College, PA
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