Revelations In Joanna

As subtle as a stab wound

the nearness is deadly even

        when she realizes

being happy means she

will always fall short. 

But later, when she 

rises long, comes out of it

less happy but more informed

around the receptive edges,

she'll sit and watch 

      her self-regard 

crumble into a roomful of people

each claiming they 

built the world they were born into. 

The affection she'll feel 

        for them then,

at their most swollen, hermetic moments

will seem like the 

sane roots what she could easily be,

drawing water into her 

mind so she can see

all the way through it, clearly. 

All the way down 

to its core irony. 
It's then she'll tap 
a glass to her forehead
and in a show of solidarity, say


Cheers, you and me both,
drink up: get bottom.