Sunday, February 23, 2025

mmmmdcxxiii

Limbo Pickle

I wrote this at the top of my drafts
document for this month, which is
a page or place that I reserve for titles
that randomly land between my ears

with at least some conviction or have
a look, a feel or a sound to which
I am attracted. There never seem
to be a dearth of these sexy juxta

positions. Or quotes I come across in
hopes of the perfect upcoming epigraph.
Sometimes I just grab a title or a quote
and without an ounce of forethought

go from there. In that way, it’s just
another parameter, a way to hone
from the top of the process. Occ
asionally, I’ve been doing that

thing that most of my more seasoned
compatriots always would relay (in
tortured manners) their own versions,
where I keep glimpsing one of those

titles or quotes, and for weeks there’s
this thing that sort of grows, like a
planted seed or a new explosion on
the horizon or a tumor or a sleek

blueprint by the latest poet-architect
sensation. I rarely build that slowly,
but when I do, well, I cannot say a piece 
built slowly in my head in that manner, one

that takes its time toward a possible
existence, is any better than one
composed like this one, in which I’ve
grabbed the title and just immediately

run with it. Also, because pickles came
up in conversation just earlier today
with the person who sits at the center
of my universe. That bit of dialog was 

close enough to pure serendipity that 
the urge simply could not be resisted.

how i like to build them