The delightfully mismatched, misshapen couple
had held hands and held on to hope for a decade
that is precise, from the first second of the decade
to the last second of the tenth year
and not spoken a word
though both had been garrulous before
they saw or knew something that made
such a vow mandatory
then, less than a second into the next decade
both began to speak, together:
there is no real truth
memory is a conflating game
the past is the vomit of truth and memory
be they unreal and conflating
we said this to the Gestapo
and now we’ll say it to the world…
and they tightened their hand-holding
and indicated a mere year this time
and I, for certain, do not doubt them.
Canadian poet, fiction writer, and playwright J. J. Steinfeld lives on Prince Edward Island. His 24 books, include An Unauthorized Biography of Being (Stories, Ekstasis Editions, 2016), Absurdity, Woe Is Me, Glory Be (Poetry, Guernica Editions, 2017), A Visit to the Kafka Café (Poetry, Ekstasis Editions, 2018), Gregor Samsa Was Never in The Beatles (Stories, Ekstasis Editions, 2019), Morning Bafflement and Timeless Puzzlement (Poetry, Ekstasis Editions, 2020), Somewhat Absurd, Somehow Existential (Poetry, Guernica Editions, 2021), Acting on the Island (Stories, Pottersfield Press, 2022), and As You Continue to Wait (Poetry, Ekstasis Editions, 2022). His short stories and poems have appeared in numerous periodicals and anthologies internationally, and over 60 of his one-act plays and a handful of full-length plays have been performed in Canada and the United States.
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