Mock Heaven

by Daniel Lusk

     “Why am I soft in the middle when life is so hard?”
          Paul Simon, “You Can Call Me Al”

A young woman bursts from the doors of the library
in Avignon, exclaiming “Peecasso! Peecasso!”
After that,
you can’t go anywhere in the world without regret.

Petrels fly through waves.
When I grow tired of flinging myself
off swinging bridges
as if I thought it were a measure of something,
I will, like penguins, abandon flight.

I’m sitting in another meeting
when a new young mother stretches abundantly.
These affairs of the moment remind me
how lucky I have been,
diving for pearls in my own bed.