Palinode I

Palinode I


I take it back. Life
is better than shit.

My dad did not say
shit but he should

 have. You only
find this out

on the other side
when you start

missing your
sense of smell.

The colors are
all right, still dancing

their foxtrot, their
ja ja

jambo. Voices
still appear

slinky, or slate,
or stupendous,

like Charlton Heston
as Moses.

But no smell.
Nothing. No shit.

That’s how you
know you are

now in a dream
from which
there is

no waking.
I take it back,

I take it all
back, what I said.



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