The emaciated yin and obese yang of my life,
the painful imbalance of the bad almost always
immediately arriving to drown in mud
the alleged shiny new good,
has led to a numb stasis in which I hang
here and age like stinking cheese.
Why bother even trying for anything
beyond right here, right now?
Leaky gumboot in the swamp is just
the way it is. Even if I slog to dry land,
that eager helping hand extended to lift me
will inevitably be revealed to work
some slight-of-hand and flourish a flame-thrower.
It all falls under the mantle of what I’ve come
to call Hesch Karma—
a Newtonian law of metaphysics that says
for every good action that happens to me
there is an unequal and opposite reaction—
a bomb blast without bombast, just bad ass.
But these days I’m making some headway
extricating myself from the swamp.
See, I’m becoming a scofflaw on the run
from Newtonisms. The Karma cops
may come after me, but with this new map
I have of joyous escape routes,
they’ll never take me alive.
Still worry about those gators, though.
© 2012 Joseph Hesch
I really like this. Very creative.
Despite the seriousness of the issue, I had to smile!!! The end was awesome!!! 🙂
You really have a thing for words, Joe.. And Hesch Karma, hmmm…hehhehe
Enjoyed this one a lot! May the gators stay away… 🙂
I’ve always chalked it up to the age old term “Murphy’s Law.” By any other name, still the law of unlucky averages. Know exactly what you mean (and I thought I was the only one a “snap ahead of those ‘gators!!) Enjoyed reading this, Joe.
“in which I hang
here and age like stinking cheese.”
I love that!
This is like a sampling of metaphysical hor d’oeurves, Joe. I like your twisting of unequal and opposite reaction, because that’s how it seems most of the time. And Hesch Karma? Smiling here.
Oh my, with that luck I’d be worried too! ;p That first line started me smiling right away. Bad karma has never been so much fun!
Thank you Adriene. Not it’s luck. Maybe I did something really really bad in a prior lifetime.