New study finds
there is no real difference
between playing 17-dimensional chess
and acting perfectly at random.
To find meaning in things
where none exists
is called ‘apophenia’.
Jesus’ visage in a slice of burnt
toast, for example,
or the Man in the Moon
for another. These are projections
of our fears and desires.
So when you hear, next week
or the week after,
amid the firestorm of ‘breaking news’
that Hulk Hogan or Kid Rock
has been tapped
for high office—likely one
requiring bona fides
beyond a hit single
from 1999, or a signature
flex of the bicep—
remember that sometimes things
are what they seem
and any group of primates
ululating loud enough can shatter glass.
*
Victor’s
A restaurant once stood on this spare lot,
its scampi sizzling for a local crowd,
its Wednesday Specials and barroom loud
with swingers swapping numbers, the lights hot.
Now Victor’s is a sign along the road,
its fancy lettering in black and gold
conjuring late nights clad in silk and pearl—
each furtive tryst absolved in time’s slow whirl.
*
Marc Alan Di Martino’s books include Day Lasts Forever: Selected Poems of Mario dell’Arco (World Poetry, 2024 – translator), Love Poem with Pomegranate (Ghost City, 2023), Still Life with City (Pski’s Porch, 2022) and Unburial (Kelsay, 2019). His poems and translations appear in Rattle, iamb, Palette Poetry and many other journals and anthologies. His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Currently a reader for Baltimore Review, he lives in Italy.
“New Study Finds,” is so poignant and terrifying. And “Victor’s” holds such beauty in the dark. Thanks for this
I love the cinematic tone of both poems. The voice in the first poem, “New Study Finds,” could easily be a narrative voice over of Jesse Eisenberg in The Social Network. Each line a truth bomb, a manifesto. This is exceptional work.
Thank you both for your thoughts. I love the Jesse Eisenberg riff!
I laughed at the first three lines of New Study Finds. The following list of human foolishness continued to delight. Then it turned to high offices given to fools. In this election year, a subtle yet sharp pinning to the wall of both the elected and those electing without mentioning names, is high art as far as I am concerned.