what the stars meant

Francis Bacon, Blood on Pavement, 1988

excerpt from falling water

john koethe

Who cares if life - someone's actual life - is  

Finally insignificant and small. There's still a  

Splendor in the way it flowers once and fades 

And leaves a carapace behind. There isn't time to 

Linger over why it happened, or attempt to make its 

Mystery come to life again and last, like someone 

Still embracing the confused perceptions of  himself 

Embedded in the past, as though eternity lay there - 

For heaven's a delusion, and eternity is in the details,  

And this tiny, insubstantial life is all there is.

Francis Bacon, Two Figures in the Grass, 1954