i miscalculated the distance between me and you,
but that’s only because i don’t know your definition,
and thus whatever sort of number i try to throw out there
would just be a guess,
and i’m not a huge fan of educated guesses,
you know,
so long as i can avoid them,
much like avoiding you
huffing glue,
huffing nitrous,
huffing particles similar to glass,
huffing creosote,
huffing gelatinous cordite,
huffing life,
dead on arrival,
see above notes
foraging in quicksand while baritones sing out
for comfort in the widening expanse of space
traveling at incalculable speeds toward doom, or chaos,
or, if we’re lucky, a bit of both,
but hopefully the school bell telling us
to put our pencils down,
go home,
take a nap,
sounds relatively soon,
so soon
Fred Aiken Writing 