What is it about freedom that we love;
Is it the tragedy?
I.
Reading Socrates through Plato’s Aristotle and
feeling at once more, though less, intelligent
while following old thoughts in a class notebook
II.
Wondering whose thoughts were on that page
in your own hand but unfamiliar words –
Some elusive insights to be recovered quickly
III.
Realizing that you cannot make out
the last few lines
because the notes have been eclipsed by pen
IV.
Discovering that someone has drawn a
large phallus in your philosophy notebook,
which has obscured the final words of Aristotle
V.
Learning that the sight of a cartoon penis atop philosophy
is almost exactly like the joy
of reading Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
VI.
Wishing for the first time that you could draw a small
cartoon penis in Wallace Stevens’ notebook,
then watch him fill with that same manic bliss
VII.
Realizing that you have been so caught up
imagining Wallace Stevens laughing at a penned phallus
that you have completely forgotten about Socrates
VIII.
Picturing a parade of old white men slinging Reason
and manuscripts across a penile notebook history
sensing at one side – the void, at the other side – God
IX.
Imagining God loves the iconography, sneaks down
often to draw small cartoon penises
on notebook intimations of philosophy.