MY EARLY YEARS IN JERSEY CITY

I jogged across a housefly's eye
until I reached the Sorbonne.

Paris was a vacant lot.
On the dais of a wrapper,

Derrida Centipede
praised The Great Midge

(While he lectured, I imagined Chopin legs
weaving music in a spider's braille)

On the left wing of a gnat
I, too, studied deconstruction--

Forgive me, I was only one day old.
Disbelief becomes invertebrates;

Faith pulls up a rock and finds Jesus--
Who can blame doubt for throwing it down?


First published in Spring, Number 27,October 2010