Trivia

Somewhere between sustenance
and boredom prevention,
those afflicted with life
must maintain extreme caution
when nurturing trivia,
since there is much at stake
between cellulite treatment
and a game of rummy or table tennis,

yet caught in a coat of my body—
an intentionally uncomfortable
occasional source of agitation—
I could always become sentimental,
which is rather frightening,
though not as much
as questionable considerations
in a world of adjectives
and noughts insisting on writing a memoir
or at least falling in love
while playing youth
despite knowing that I am
just an old man with prejudices,
and only if I get the spelling right.

But all I can do is to be incompetent
so as to preserve the character’s consistency.

If only I knew how to play the piano—
it would make it a hell of a lot easier
to annoy the neighbours.


More words to ponder at maciejmodzelewski.com

Whispers of immortality

With a nameplate on his door
and a stanza in his wallet,
Mr Honk stumbled upon
the first smidgeon of perpetuity,
but as a newborn he looked back
at the five decades of his life
with a hint of reservation—
fate might have spared him
the habitual thumb-munching
but not the descriptive grammar:

You ain’t lived nothing yet!


More words to ponder at maciejmodzelewski.com

A space filler

What was the last thing you remember
before you died? I was signing my book,
but I can’t recall if it was as MacCallus
or Modzelewski. It doesn’t matter—
they’re both equally ridiculous—
just like signing a book
I never published.


More words to ponder at maciejmodzelewski.com

The blessed

Would you rather be a sperm whale
suddenly called into existence
several miles above the surface of an alien planet
or an equally blessed bowl of petunias?
I guess either would work, considering
they don’t have to contemplate
the sound of ice being scraped off car windows
early in the morning to realise everything
needs to be done again tomorrow.