Presence

“Everything becomes and recurs eternally.” Nietzsche

“An utterance is never just a reflection or an expression of something already existing outside it that is given and final. It always creates something that never existed before, something absolutely new and unrepeatable.” Bakhtin

The high whine in my left ear cannot drown

the higher fainter whine in my right.  

I’m growing old. Falling apart as everything does,

little by little, until

the whole structure crumbles. Nonetheless

I can still hear the steady click of the clock like a heartbeat

over the whine. And the alternate rhythm of music still

easily draws me away. Sometimes

I think the best attitude to take to death is

to ignore it. Don’t accept it.

Don’t bother to fear it. Just don’t

pay it any heed. Preparation

is just another form of denial,

another agent of that fell sergeant. And yet,

the moment I sat down and urged

the goddess presence to visit me

like a holy ghost and write whatever comes

I heard the whine in my ear against the music of my life

and thought of death.