Daye 6 / The 23,000th

I was a physicist
and you were a butterfly
with wings like
a blue litmus blot
flutter in my ear
when you're no longer here
I remember each day
with a knot
that time was a tarot
it raced like an arrow
and took ten returns
to shake off
if it's downtime in babel
and you're just a fable
how will we ever know
if we're dreaming or not
I had my inner life
muted with ketamine
counting up the price
of my lust
numbing the pain
to feel again
the grind's designed
to fog your mind
so we will never know
if we're dreaming or not

***

I was six months old
when a woman
stopped my mother in the street
leaned into my pram
and touched my head
your boy has a beautiful golden aura
she smiled
and he has been here
many thousands of times before
he will be a musician
or a scientist
he may even be both
if he's especially blessed

my mother wept
because she could not accept
what the woman had told her
songs had no importance
in her life
and she considered all musicians
to be life's greatest fritterers
neither had she any use for science
to be a scientist is almost as useless
as being a musician
she'd tell me
shaking her head
and she would read aloud
some passage from a book
which she hoped might
vindicate her beliefs