Abstractions
They knock
the inside
of my skull
keep me up
late nights
wondering
why good
and not evil
why right
and not wrong
why god
and not man
the great
unnecessary
abstractions
why not
instead
the muscle
and bones
of a lover's
body
the soil
around my feet
the faces
of those
I love
why not
the steady work
of a pen
scratching
against the sheet
or a voice
chanting breath
into the sky
Robert Hybben lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is a student in the MFA program at Hamline University in St. Paul.