THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE
THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE
by Aaron Fagan
Leaves gather here
Beneath the cherry
Blooms. I am never
Where I think I am.
No need to wrestle
With the facts that
Come and go, here,
Dead by the riverbed.
Nature congregates
In cinematic exodus
From logs and stones,
From all obscurity.
Whatever it is, it is
Here to sneak a little
Luxuriance away from
The fresh bones of me.
My paper crown melts
Away, a maggot appears
At the edge of my nose,
Taking a break from
The feast we’ve made.
Beautiful, elegant stanza sense and imagery. You get a sense of Fall, but it could be any time. (“I am never where I think I am.”) “Whatever it is” takes life from him, and self-worth (“My paper crown melts away”), reducing the latter to vanity. Corruption, death are very much in the picture, as the “maggot” intimates. Fall is a time for feasting, but nature’s implicit demise suggests our “taking a break” from that to consider our mortality.