Poetry

Victoria Pickering photo

By

Todd Sukany

Easier to Deny

deny:  2. to refuse to admit or acknowledge — m-w.com

Since I’ve never curled up in a blanket

to read the Webster’s before a banked fire

on a bitter Michigan night, the third week

in January puzzles me till the end

of December.  I find words ripped

from the pages of hypertext,

placarded in bold lettering

under some celebrity’s teeth,

meant to justify hate and meanness.

Like poodle skirts or

rear-fender fins,

the latest buzz is allegation.

Turns out the Webster imagined allegation

as an assertion unsupported and by implication

regarded as unsupportable.  Such an old geezer.

Such muddle-headed mush to hang out

with Founding Fathers.  I return to the comfort

of novel flipping in fire-lit Times like these.

More Investigation Looms

That long walk past the bowl on the garage floor,

the cat’s bowl three-quarters full of water

and one floundering cricket.  Aqua-cricket.

Swimming like life depends upon it.  Or

what about that split-second decision

not to break stride, that moment

of clarity knowing the drop

of my foot will introduce a sprinting beetle

to the face of eternity.  Why after the crushing-

second passes do I consider bugs

have no soul?  Is it because I’ve

never opened the Bug Bible

translated from the original 1611?

Never cared to work through

the Thee’s or Thine’s of its Genesis

or Acts of the Arachnids?  Avoided reading

the work for myself?  Is it apparent that

things different than myself or outside

my immediate needs have no soul,

no reason for existence except

to annoy?  Why on the morning

a man’s career stands up

to a vote, do I sleep long

after Snooze?

Todd Sukany

Todd Sukany, a Pushcart nominee, lives in Pleasant Hope, Missouri with his wife of over 35 years. His work has appeared in Ancient Paths, Cave Region Review, Intégrité, and The Ekphrasitc Review.  Sukany, a native of Michigan, stays busy running, playing music, and caring for six rescue dogs and a cat.