The Simplest Things

Milton Jordan

October 10, 2022

I have had to learn the simplest things

last, which has made for difficulties.

Maximus to Himself , Charles Olson

Question marks create more conversation

than exclamation points, and silence

sustains more dialogue than the best advice.

Yesterday’s answers open tomorrow’s 

confusion and certainties dissolve

in the familiar fog that marks my mornings.

Neither carefully constructed rhythm 

and rhyme nor well-paced narrative action

will veil my failure to engage strangers 

or friends who page through these poems, and obscure

language or literary references

invite few listeners into your story.

Milton Jordan lives with Anne in Georgetown, Texas. His collection, A Forest for the Trees, is out from Backroom Window Press.