Painting by Fabian Perez
rembrandt's nightwatchman's soliloquies 5
A man, at the next table, wearing
a construction worker’s helmet,
and a black suit like Olivier wore in Hamlet,
introduced himself
as one of my closest kin, a first cousin.
He said, “Hallelujah.”
I was puzzled since I had no kinfolks, replied,
“Cogito ergo sum.”
He corrected me, saying you are not a rationalist,
But an empiricist. You are a tablula rasa.
He was the first to ever recognize that I was
A tabula rasa, so I said,
“Hallelujah.”
All the priests in body shirts at the bar
Who were flexing their biceps
And delivering sermons with four-fold meanings
Said, “Hallelujah.”
Duane Locke
Posted over on Smokebox
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