Lingering in the vestibule

As life’s main ingredient,
truism hardly belongs to the compartment
labelled ‘imponderabilia’, yet that is precisely
where Mr Honk tends to place it,

but that’s hardly anything out of the ordinary
when one considers his other eccentricities,
as when, for instance, he reaches the place
that was the sole reason for reading a book
only to pause, much like the faithful
who linger in the vestibule
to read the parish announcements
and then dip their fingertips
in the holy water in the aspersorium
to make the sign of the cross
before joining a coryphée in the matronaeum.


More words to ponder at maciejmodzelewski.com

If I fled to Norway

If I fled to Norway with my bubble-wrapped dispositions and unbearable cravings,
would that be proof that I had finally shed the provincial attitude I was born with
or that I was a habitual procrastinator, constantly pushing aside the urgent need
to solve the mundane complexities of my pre-divorce life and start breathing again?

Perhaps I would have met a local songstress there, singing about listening to the ocean
and climbing her way in a tree—not that she would ever so much as glance at a bloke
almost twice her age—and felt my heart skip a beat once more. But that’s impossible,
because first I would have to shower, change, and hit the streets of Granite City, leaving

my granite tomb that I sometimes humbly call home.

An all-nighter

I pulled an all-nighter, struggling
to keep my eyes open at times,
just to watch two cours in one sitting
of some old anime I hadn’t seen in years,
and it wasn’t even my favourite one.

But it’s not like I planned this;
it just sort of happened out of sheer inertia,
as if my body decided it for me,
the same as not showering for weeks
or staying indoor with the curtains drawn.