Between Order and Adventure

For days now, I've been walking around this place,
my foolish brain, for some strange reason, repeating
the melodramatic phrase, "My heart is on the line."

Last night I fell asleep to the sound of steady rain—
this morning I woke to birdsong. I like this planet,
with its surprises and little envelopes of dreams.
Our proximity to the phases of the bright, fixed stars.

I will say that it does get a little cold here on occasion.
But then, I've got my anxieties to keep me warm.
The point is not necessarily to hold onto the sanity,
so much as to embrace it when it does take hold.

Everything that has been made is not necessary.
I'm one of the ones who just wants more & more.

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Scott Silsbe was born in Detroit. He now lives in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania. His poems have been collected in four books: Unattended Fire, The River Underneath the City, Muskrat Friday Dinner, and Meet Me Where We Survive. He is also an assistant editor at Low Ghost Press.