APHORISMS, PROVERBS, DECLARATIVES
TOM DALEY

 

Aphorisms for Jerome Liebling’s Photograph, “Young woman, West Side,

St. Paul, 1956”

 

Subtlety is a bemused cat that glowers

at acceleration. A bright voice

 

never wakes up a dilemma.

When eyes stiffen with immortality,

 

we reach that midpoint in development

between curious and mean. Slough

 

off trouble for a workaday glamour.

Two pencils within reach

 

of a relaxed fist: Japanese Buddhism!

Dot your long-sleeved shirt

 

with small billiard ball eyes

and all your buttons

 

will turn to dimes. Anxiety:

a gold hoop earring

 

that never recharges

in the sun.