I. chamber tragicomedy

it’s Wagner’s Tristan streaming from the kitchen 
speaker   potent ale in front of me 
i think about the tragic arc the way 
it mimics amplifies the life of those
who strive & die   a cis male fantasy 
perhaps   //   i’ve striven most of my adult
life to avoid an easy self-importance
yet insisted on my mantra all things 
end in sadness for so goddamn long
that you exhaustedly agree   //   night’s fallen
blackened branches foreground blacker sky
i hear dark laughter thundering between 
the stars then echoing within my heart
or is it just the dishwasher’s dull slosh

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II. science fiction

i watch a remixed sci fi classic on
tv while munching chips & letting a
new poem marinate   //   oh subterfuge
& centrifuge unconscious slow deluge
i’m thinking of the mushy middle of
the book i’m editing & Dad also
a sci fi fan dead all these years how booze 
& age had softened him   //    the ale i’m drinking
hits me hard the movie picks up steam
with maker myths the villain’s existential
angst more interesting than our hero’s 
struggle with his work & distant lover
//    don’t need Daedalus to be reminded
even great men father foolish sons

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Thomas Zimmerman (he/him/his) teaches English, directs the Writing Center, and edits The Big Windows Review https://thebigwindowsreview.com/ at Washtenaw Community College, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. His poems have appeared recently in Feed the Holy, Pulsebeat Poetry Journal, and Soul Poetry. His latest poetry book is My Night to Cook (Cyberwit, 2024).