Philosophy
Nihilism, but not in a negative
sense—such was his thought,
what else to call it? Like snow
inside a novelty snow globe,
vague possibility descended
from probability, descended
from likelihood and certainty.
Now not even air. Those great
words discussed in college—
truth, beauty, justice, which
had come to embarrass him,
like teasing bare-breasted
girls in postcards sent from
Polynesian islands that each
year he had found less likely;
absolutes faded like old shirts,
as still he tried to create from
stray thoughts as if out of wood-
chips and mud, the old certainties
he once loved, the believable lie.
Copyright Credit: Stephen Dobyns, "Philosophy" from The Day’s Last Light Reddens the Leaves of the Copper Beech. Copyright © 2016 by Stephen Dobyns. Reprinted by permission of BOA Editions, Ltd., www.boaeditions.org.
Source: The Day’s Last Light Reddens the Leaves of the Copper Beech (BOA Editions, Ltd., 2016)