Being Made

by Thomas Zimmerman

Your favorite rock ’n’ roll band’s gotten old,

yes, older than the dead and distant stars

whose light you see tonight: a hundred years

to get here. Like the other dead you see

in dreams or under whiskey’s smoky spell.

You say your better self is lying on

the fold-out sofa bed. Your wife’s upstairs, 

your needy dog will find you yet. There, on

the ottoman, the books you’ve stolen from.

Great leaders, sausages: you love them both

but couldn’t bear to see them being made.

Each maker rides a horse that nags them to 

infinity. Your shadow and your breathing

corpse: Venn diagram in flux, dependent 

on a streetlight, moon, or sun. Your forebears?

Doppelgängers, ghostly pentimento.

Thomas Zimmerman (he/him) teaches English, directs the Writing Center, and edits The Big Windows Review https://thebigwindowsreview.com/ at Washtenaw Community College, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His poems have appeared recently in dadakuku, Disturb the Universe, and Pulsebeat Poetry Journal. His latest book is Dead Man's Quintet (Cyberwit, 2023). Website:  https:/thomaszimmerman.wordpress.com  

Twitter (X): @bwr_tom  Instagram: tzman2012  Facebook: Tom.Zimmerman.315