Poem IV · Free verse · 2025
I Wish, 10
For once,
I wish to close my eyes and sink,
free of thought,
into the place where all is
fulfilled and real: here
time would seem
to hold more dimensions, and
my every destiny would prove
to be the very best.
For once, how I wish.
Author's note
"I Wish, 10" is built like a palindrome of meaning: it can be read from top to bottom and from bottom to top, and in each direction it tells of a different desire.
Read downward, it is the dream of an imagined world in which everything one thinks becomes real. Time no longer flows merely from before to after, but opens into parallel dimensions: if every imagined object comes to pass, there is no need to choose. Every possible destiny can be realized, and each as the best.
Read upward, it is instead the desire to be (or to be seen as) the best: the one whom all admire, a sort of VIP. In that condition any destiny, by the mere fact of falling to one who stands above, would become spacious, inhabitable in more dimensions. The perception of time would turn concrete: one would live the present rather than dream it. A serene place, "free of thought," a free pass to life.
The two readings mirror each other in the closing "For once, how I wish," at once resignation and invocation.