Straight Lines
The ghostly sap in lumber warps it just to keep us humble. We talk about a beeline knowing the overloaded bee wobbles on her way home. Bureaucrats long for trees with unserrrated rectangular leaves—little green chits for infinitesimal amounts of shade. Some of them would put zippers down the back of an angel’s shimmering garment, even though it never needs to be sent to the dry cleaner. They’d send it anyway. Mondrian dreamed of the caves at Lascaux and wept in his sleep. Ex-cons cry out to Euclid but never manage to go straight. It’s hopeless. And no matter what we do, the shortest distance between two hearts is so convoluted no one ever gets there.
Don Thompson has been publishing since the early sixties, including a half dozen or so books and chapbooks. Most recently, Pinyon Publishing released Everything Barren Will Be Blessed a few months ago.