A Poem to Myself

Each man is the architect of his own flood.
Noah only built the ark
for himself; I've yet to

settle into the coffin of my body;
Not every memory is a cross.

You hold your purity tight
like a hammer against the premature
whitening of my temple.

When you strike roses bloom:
no thorns, only soft petals that spill
over the floor, the walls.

And our neighbors like animals
come filing in: one by one,
two by two.

– Jeremiah Gould

© 2008

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jbf@fergus.com
Revised 4/7/2008