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Weightless

if all a bird knows is flying
but one day on the edge of a rooftop
realizes he’s afraid of heights
do his wings feel heavier
does his brain swirl around
with the vertigo of fear? —

and if all I’ve ever known
is fear,
when I find inner peace
will my soul grow wings?

Terri Guillemets

Imperfect

“I weep over my imperfect pages, but if future generations read them, they will be more touched by my weeping than by any perfection I might have achieved, since perfection would have kept me from weeping and, therefore, from writing.”

—Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935), translated by Richard Zenith, 2015

The King’s maths

“What is seven times six?”

Rabbit wondered what to say. “Forty-two” was the right answer. But the King, who could do no wrong, even in arithmetic, might decide, for the purposes, that “fifty-four” was an answer more becoming to the future of the country. Was it, then, safe to say “Forty-two”?

“Your Majesty,” he said, “there are several possible answers to this extraordinarily novel conundrum. At first sight the obvious solution would appear to be ‘forty-two.’  The objection to this solution is that it lacks originality. I have long felt that a progressive country such as ours might well strike out a new line in the matter. Let us agree that in future seven sixes are fifty-four.”

The King scratched his head. “The correct answer,” he said, “is, or will be in the future, fifty-four.”

“Make a note of that,” whispered the Chancellor to the Chief Secretary.

—A. A. Milne, “Prince Rabbit,” 1924, a little altered