Love is a big one to start in on
and nobody knows jack but the lack of it
changes a young brain. Shifts shape.

Programming, they say.
Which songs play on the radio?
You know the one, the one you heard first

in dyads & dybbuks & dandles,
it’s beautiful to us,
it shapes the parameters of what’s possible.

But what about souls & so on?
The baby in the love experiment
believed the intended illusion

and crawled off the edge of the cliff
just to get to mama. Optical illusion, of course, but
despite many reasons to choose another course,

your face in my mind is compelling, it is.
Who gives a sweet damn about the abyss.

Original appearance in Connotation Press.