Mark Terrill
A Poem for Philosophers
Some old proto-Freudian
is looking up at me
from the kitchen floor
where he’s installing a new P-trap
under my kitchen sink,
telling me about how things are
and how they used to be.
What is it about these
German plumbers
who invariably turn
the slightest incident
into a philosophical conundrum?
Beclouded in my grid
of craziness and conceit,
the months go stuttering by
with their recondite equanimity.
For all these years now
I’ve been hardening on the outside,
softening on the inside,
my soul a soggy exoskeleton
oxidizing in the exhaust fumes,
now alarmingly transparent
in the harsh light of day.
I wouldn’t so much mind
the long fall from grace
if it didn’t have to last forever.
Page(s) 114
magazine list
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- Poetry London (1951)
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- Poetry Salzburg Review
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- Second Aeon
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- Shearsman
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- Staple
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- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
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- Yellow Crane, The