XIII

the unknown is not a god

your relationship to it

is

dreams and actions things to be remembered

myths and narratives to be filled in

how do we even think

to trust ourselves

*

knowing is a pettiness

the attempt to know

an hommage to mystery

the unknown

an asymptote

don’t pretend

we’re not getting there

don’t pretend we ever will

*

the value of imagism and science

is the dispassion

the lack of self

pure

observation

here’s a thing and here’s what it’s doing

here’s

what it does

*

thoughts about a thing

in the moment

to move forward with

the evidence we have

or don’t have the physics of America

propelling us

toward another

righter wrong

the importance of our importance

what is extinguished

by our confidence by our lack

of confidence in a thought

eternal

curiosity

the future we’ve been promised

the past

that never happened

*

you can’t

stop thinking

meaning hope

an anchor

a person in your house

on your screen

someone to interact with someone to

test your observation against

a compromise

a dance a test

of company

Chris Tonelli is a co-founder of the independent poetry press Birds, LLC. He is the author of five chapbooks and two full-length poetry collections, most recently Whatever Stasis from Barrelhouse Books. He works in the Libraries at NC State University and is co-owner of So & So Books in Raleigh, NC where he lives with his wife Allison and their kids Miles and Vera.