Anti-Ambition Ode

Is the idea to make a labyrinth

of the mind bigger? What’s the matter?

You still come out of the womb-dark

into the sneering court of the sun

and don’t know which turn to take.

So what? You’re made of twigs anyway.

You were on an errand but never came back,

spent too long poking something with a stick.

Was it dead or never alive?

Invisibility will slow down soon enough

for you to catch up and pull it over yourself.

No one knows what color the first hyena’s tongue

to reach you will be.

Or the vultures who are slow, careful unspellers.

So go ahead, become an expert in sleep or not,

either way you can live in a rose or smoke

only so long.

You will still be left off the list.

You will still be rain, blurry as a mouse.