Beatitude

“Within despair lies 

the joy of beatitude”

                ~anonymous

I remember Gide.

Gheeeed.

A time when

I was both real

and counterfeit.

Before I invented

myself as a reason 

to entwine 

my body

with another.

In the future

men were

both

crude and

insensitive.

I would be 

different.

Now

a single tree

can topple me.

A glass 

of wine

all that’s needed

to destroy

my separateness,

and sunlight 

the one thing

making me

still possible.

Peter Valentyne

August 3, 2020