day ONE HUNDRED and NINETY

Berlin Alexanderplatz

It won’t take long now
before you discover
how sorry you are
about everything
you’ve broken and beaten.

God, I’d love to be there
on the day you regret
some invisibly damaged
someone
who is not me.

I’m not suggesting that
there’s penance to be done
or that
the sky will crack for
anyone’s ascension.

Atoms won’t split willy-nilly.
Protons won’t flee from electrons.
There’ll be no nucleic rift.

The universe broke down
a long time ago, my friend.

Long live hydrogen, the combustible!
Long live helium, the eternal high!
Long live carbon and the copies that repeat
            and never fade.

--Drew Pisarra