A Note on Form and the Transgression of It (3.29.23)

Here Is the Thing

mundi carmen

Here is the thing about the rhymed couplet:

You make a line of verse and then you double it,

And suddenly your world of Costco, cable and assault gun, 

The ball of shit you inhabit, Babel relation 

That rolls one ugly day into another

Relaxes, if only for a minute, into a zephyr

Of inconsequence: your broken world, if only

For a minute or two, isn’t broken and lonely.

Introduce as well syllabification,

Meter, stress, and end-of-the-line ligation

That favors rhyme and you can hardly claim

Disaffection from too much chaos or pain.

The case of couples, two by two, is why.

Equation, Orderliness, Law is why.

As for your constantly subconscious churn of mind—

Muddle, mess, morass, the daily grind—

Here is the thing that the double-hemmed hand-cuff

Of the couplet saves you from: you, yourself.