The Benefit of the Doubt

“Don’t tell me what I’m doing; I don’t want to know.”—Federico Fellini

“Loneliness does not arise from there being no people around you, but from your inability to share with them the things that seem important to you.”—Carl Jung

Well, yes, I’m lonely, I can handle that,

I know the place, and in this ninth decade,

As Heaven knows, I’m somewhat used to it.

Watching the paint dry on the big parade,

You must admit the inadmissible—

For all the flaming good it does! And you,

You need to get the message too! No way!

I never shalI. (No point saying “will”!)

I’ll give “you” the benefit of the doubt.

What does it cost me, when all’s said and done?

There’s no toll booth on this benighted route,

Which willy-nilly I now call my own.

I never chose the road. Did it choose me?

I tried to tell—for figments love their fun!

Epigraphs: Federico Fellini quoted by his friend Ray Bradbury, in “Green Town, Somewhere on Mars; Mars, Somewhere in Egypt,” Introduction to The Martian Chronicles (rev. ed., Avon Books, 1997).

Carl Gustav Jung: „Einsamkeit entsteht nicht dadurch, dass man keine Menschen um sich hat, sondern dadurch, dass man ihnen die Dinge, die einem wichtig erscheinen, nicht mitteilen kann.“

July 21, 2026

When Push Comes to Shove

A righteous  man regardeth the life of his beast.

—Proverbs 12:10

 Life is a duty, an obligation. Consequently, love is a duty, too.

—Goncharov, Oblomov, pt. 2, ch. 2

 We are obliged to live, and so to love—

Is that a principle I should approve?

Are there in fact such rules for love to be?

I am too old to have fresh tasks revealed

That have lain hidden in some dingbat way.

Word from above arriving every day,

They say it’s best to leave the beast concealed.

But soon there’s shelter, at the last remove,

When push, O fond companion, comes to shove,

And, wanting motives, seeks to call it love,

As if that were an outcome one could see,

A world appears.* But is that world for me?

I’m not that old; old age has been repealed.

Tender mercies, behold the beast unsealed!

*  “I open my eyes and a world appears.”—Anil Seth, Being You: A New Science of Consciousness (Dutton. 2021), 79. I steal this from Michael Pollan’s book A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness (Penguin Press, 2026). But he stole it himself, so he can’t complain!

A poem very much in progress.

Friday, July 10, 2026

Some Like It Hot

Not to be born surpasses thought and speech.

The second best is to have seen the light

And then to go back quickly whence we came.

—Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus, trans. Robert Fitzgerald

Though having seen so many days go by,

A girl may sometimes still enjoy the world.

I fear I find no wisdom in that, mog [cat],

Though it might serve to fool a dog.

Not to be born is better off the bat—

So Sophocles and the Buddha thought.

A sufficiency of kibbles bought,

The foolish fears of kittenhood passé,

Best is to dream your life away,

Lying on the doorstep, love that heat!

You may not think so, but it's neat.

Ah, my dear human, hard to beat!

Struck by the sagacity of my cat Muggs

I, too, resolved to dream my life away,

Though concrete doorsteps lack appeal,

And air-conditioning’s the better way:

Human status dictates one's berth,

Or what’s the point of raping Mother Earth!

We have no authorship in dreams.

We choose the bed on which we lie,

What happens isn't quite what it seems.

Stuff you remember might be read,

Infinity propping up a well-stuffed pillow,

Quarks parading in your head.

Sunday, July 5, 2026