Nothing

            I awoke at 5 a.m. with a piece of writing running around in my head. I had to get it down, which I did, right after breakfast. Reading it now, I realize that all of your 5 a.m. thoughts are not worth preserving.

            Here it is:

nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing 

nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing 

nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing 

nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing 

nothing nothing something nothing nothing nothing nothing

nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing 

nothing nothing nothing nothing  anything nothing nothing 

nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing 

nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing  you

            After letting it sit on my computer for a few days, I showed it to Kim. Her immediate response: “I don’t like it.”

            “It’s kinda like a poem – a love poem,” I said, trying to get her to like it.

            “I don’t like it.”

            “Well, I don’t like it either,” I said, giving in.

            I woke up a few days later wondering how people would read my “poem.” Would their eyes go left-to-right, line-by-line? Or would it just take a quick glance, with a moment’s focus on the three irregular lines? I think that was the case with Kim’s quick response. And, come to think of it, that’s how I wrote it, using copy-paste on my laptop. And I wondered if anyone would notice that I typed two spaces before the terminal “you,” indicating a pause. My guess is, No.

            Then I took a step back and thought of all the people killing time while under some form of lock-down, self-imposed or not. What kind of mindless, or even mindful, activities are they coming up with? To quote the poet: “nothing nothing something.”