Out of the blue
 
Sure, paint the door with blood and get a pass.
But, tomorrow, Death’s angel will again be on the lookout.
 
Sure, read the litany of vitamins and sugars.
But, out of the blue, the heart strangles itself.
 
Sure, crouch away from the stranger here.
But, listen, aren’t we all?
 
Sure, stay between the white lines.
But, you know, a steering wheel slip has no conscience.
 
Sure, the best is yet to come.
Sure, lover come back.
Sure, someone to watch over me.
Sure, all of me.
Sure, it was a very good year.
Sure, that old black magic.
 
But, amen, amen, the numb mystery at the center of things
is a kernel that can’t be digested.

Patrick T. Reardon is the author of eight books, including Requiem for David, a poetry collection from Silver Birch Press, and Faith Stripped to Its Essence, a literary-religious analysis of Shusaku Endo's novel Silence. His poems have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2016 and 2017. His novella Babe was short-listed by Stewart O’Nan for the annual Faulkner-Wisdom Contest of the Faulkner Society.

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