Companion poem for chapter 1 of the R.M. Dolin novel, "Trophic Cascade"
Read original poem, read chapter
So many nights
like every other,
yet practice can’t produce
planned outcomes.
If only Schroedinger’s cat
really were simultaneously in two states.
If only night came with beacons
filtered to spotlight the suddenness
of entropy,
the pattern of dust drawing down
the rugged road behind us
settling in ways that
reveal our rush toward destiny
measured in intensity
and the level to
which we’re generally unprepared.
The stories we tell to avoid truths
all too present to be imagined away
don’t come close to the loss
we feel when caught in
inevitable outcomes
yet to be determined.
From the R.M. Dolin novel, “Trophic Cascade.” Jake and the ANA have just found out that a woman’s been killed at Miguel ranch while attacking a man, and Sympatico is missing. As Jake rushes to Sympatico’s room to verify she’s really gone, emotions he thought were dead forever, rush through him in ways he can’t control.
