If perdition
indeed holds
a place for a face
such as mine,
the lines of which
are the essence
of a depressing
viewpoint, then
I welcome my fate
Lucifer set my plate
somewhere between
Dickinson and Twain
so I may learn from
their sardonic wit
just what it is to
be human, and what
it means to love
and to feel
and to reel
against it all
and to fall
and rise again
over and over
until the end
of time in the
sublime ecstasy
of the soul’s
droll brilliance.