It's Still Life

A Month of Writing Negative Space Poetry

I.
Short and Shorter
(a list poem, and a wee small story)

Zeptoverse*;

a quark;
a neutrino;
an atom;

dust;
salt;
spice;
a grain of rice;
a grain of pollen;

a crumb;
a stitch;
a spark;
a splinter;

a seed;
a comma;
a raindrop;
a button;

a moment;
a teardrop;
a murmur;
a shadow’s footprint;

a penny;
a pebble;
a feather;
a whisper;

a bee;
a wren;
a mouse …

who would like
a little cheese
with his crumb.

Want is enormous,
even in the smallest creature.

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II.
The Old Woman was writing about small things when a mouse climbs onto the table.

‘Small,’ she said, looking at him.
‘Relative,’ said Marcel, looking at the cheese.

Then he wrote:

Short

My legs are short.
My reach is shorter.
But leave the cheese too near the edge,
and see how tall I get.

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