JOHN FITZGERALD
The Man Who Knew Everything
Sapiens number seven billion.
And it’s the same with me as with every other human.
I formed immersed in a dark sac of fluid
and bore through a tunnel into the light.
From that time I have never been alone.
From that time too I have always been.
I am a hypothetical being.
Every person born of my line
the day and year and place that I was,
and given my features, strengths, and limitations,
would almost certainly be me.
For over a year did I write certain nights when I could.
Orator for the planet with a voice like dirt
and a few odd ghosts behind me.
Herein lies the testament of earth,
a statement much too much for me to bear.
It overwhelms me, and I am afraid.
I have no proof.
I am poet and cannot explain.
I will go into the other room to drink.
My God, my love is way out of control.
All manner of loneliness I pray to.
I will be like the far thoughts of paper.
When the word existed before it was spoken.
John FitzGerald is a poet, writer, editor and attorney in Los Angeles. A dual citizen of the United States and Ireland, he graduated from the University of West Los Angeles School of Law, where he was editor of the Law Review. His first book, the novel in verse, Spring Water, was a Turning Point Books prize selection in 2005. Telling Time by the Shadows (Turning Point Books) was released in 2008. His most recent work, The Mind, was published by Salmon Poetry in 2011. His fourth collection, Favorite Bedtime Stories, is forthcoming from Salmon Poetry in 2014.