THE SECRET OF LIFE (TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT)
mark hartenbach
saint ishmael told me in what appeared
to be shattered&splintered
abstract expressionist version
of a gnostic hophead
diamond sutra (but the pure
beauty of the language
was enough to deem it
gospel truth) that the path
to happiness
or maybe it was the line
of least resistance,
anyway i know it led somewhere
& sometimes thatıs enough.
the soul needs to be submerged
in 80 proof&incidental contact
& some things that are illegal
is this country
to help it keep
its luster.
