Transcendental

/ Issue 10.2 /

By 6 a.m., I have already walked the dog, emptied
…the washing machine, and considered breakfast
Carefully over a gallon or two of coffee. This is why
…old white men like me have no business whatsoever
Writing memoirs. Emerson was all about self-
…reliance, but never scribbled a word about the laundry.
Did Emerson do underwear? Who cares? Transcendence
…is transcendence, in the end, but nothing is universal
Except the universe. How many humans know what
…the latest space probe found in the rings of Saturn, much less
How long a piece of thread the Fates have trimmed to embroider
…a monogram on the pocket of my shirt? My shirt, buddy,
One more vanity, one more possession with my initials on it
…that has to be cast in the washer, given over to that supreme
Agitation, spun in the vortex, whipped, and cleansed.

T.R. Hummer

T.R. Hummer

T.R. Hummer's chapbook, In These States appeared from Jacar Press in 2020. Otherwise, he has published fifteen books of poetry and essays, most recently After the Afterlife (Acre Books, 2018). Former editor-in-chief of The Kenyon Review, of New England Review, and of The Georgia Review, he lives in retirement in Cold Spring, NY, and never goes to meetings.
T.R. Hummer

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Author: T.R. Hummer

T.R. Hummer's chapbook, In These States appeared from Jacar Press in 2020. Otherwise, he has published fifteen books of poetry and essays, most recently After the Afterlife (Acre Books, 2018). Former editor-in-chief of The Kenyon Review, of New England Review, and of The Georgia Review, he lives in retirement in Cold Spring, NY, and never goes to meetings.