Cool Enormity

It brushes your cheek in this chamber

coolly, strangely de-oxygenated

with a taste of the sacred, secret bitters

Where does it come from, cool enormity?

There is no choice but to inhale

It’s the only breath you will take this afternoon

The worn, tiled floors should be waxed

They should keep their appointments in this place

Other people like you are in those chairs, waiting

lolling like damaged dolls each with one eye up

I take a picture; they don’t care

and never once look, cool enormity

Now you ask yourself, now you let

it crawl all over you as they hit your vein

They ask, “Would you like water,” and

you decline, preferring cool enormity

Cool enormity—is it a drug in a bag?

or a woman in a white coat with a tiny caliper?

You are the drumming love in this cool universe

You are the heart-beating, white hole of existence

You will survive, enormously cool

©2009 Viola Weinberg