After Suicide [In the hallway of life]
In the hallway of life
you were a rose with no stem
and I, the janitor sweeping
away the fallen petals.
You said the world revolves
while we ourselves remain
in the darkness of the never-
ending, never-beginning never.
I say that the man who
was humiliated in the second act
and shot himself in the fifth,
stands up, smiles, bows.
The lamp asks,
is it the shadow writing this,
the pen, or their converging?
The paper asks nothing.
Copyright Credit: Matt Rasmussen, "After Suicide [In the hallway of life]" from Black Aperture. Copyright © 2013 by Matt Rasmussen. Reprinted by permission of Louisiana State University Press.
Source: Black Aperture (Louisiana State University Press, 2013)