Hermeticum 9 (The Cosmos as It Grinds Away)

Benjamin Paloff

The calendar doesn't seem
to care at all
what day it is, or how 

many have passed
since my father's last 
fall. It's a marvelous actor. 

And the plot,
I don't know, 
was okay, probably not 

worth a jury—prize? trial?
Both, when private grief 
can be converted 

into the feel-good closer 
on the local news 
by so slight a thing 

as delaying delivery
of a letter
two or three generations. 

A pittance, hardly 
took a breath 
to say it.