The Writing Prompt

 

–for Doug Anderson

 

Think about the pressure that makes each fact float,

high rise buildings at the edge of___________,

in my case, Helsinki, the apartment complexes

“post-war” vaguely Stalinist, “a good place

for electro-shock” and the architect 

now in a mad house. 4A stands where

once, in ‘38, they made machine guns

and a row of bicycles waits 

like old horses queuing for hay,

children pitch coins at the bus stop,

flickering faces share structural damage

from repeated loading–half the locals

have turned to stones or worse. 

My trick was to rise early,

walk out “into” one of those photos

from the last century, 

forget the hell of nothing

and show off my brand new suit

to a circle of crows. 

I was young back then

and used to think about two truths approaching,

money and labor, music and envy,

tautological, drunk, 

seeing the stains through the wallpaper,

blind of course, pushed across the streets

by strangers, what a muddle!

Think about the pressure that makes each fact float.

Think about the invisible ink invented 

by George Washington, and remember

despite his caution, our first president

also wrote in code.