205
Sonnets From Other Lives: Hal

The losses pile up. He’s down to zero—
less than nothing—the negative one.
It’s been a long time since he was the hero
of his own story. It isn’t fun
anymore. Defensive shields of irony
can only hold out for so long before
the brutal assaults of reality
crumble one’s illusions. There are more
& more negative numbers in the columns
he’s been struggling for so long to balance.
This is what it feels like to fall. Some-
how he neglected to make an allowance
for unseen variables that on occasion
appear & queer the best laid out equations.