On the Difficulty of Staying Grounded and Fed in a Multiverse

​

I.
I can’t believe: I can’t
float up to the ceiling
or disperse atomically
to become part of the food I will soon ingest.

I can believe I dump salt

   on my plateful, spiteful.

​

Leftovers have no problem
with bilocation, belief; self-assured,
they will one day learn to fly,
take over the multiverse,

atom by moldy atom.

As true believers say: casserole wills itself

intelligent, eventually.

I can’t just float. Air is not water.
I just can’t

merge with my food

without chewing it.
 

I’m too dispirited to eat.
I guess flying--

       eating--

makes sense. If you like sense.

My salty body puts me back in my chair.
A particular universe
fights with me to lift my fork,
 

does not win.

​

II.
Where have I been, if not flying?

Flight without wings, without wind-warning
has always seemed plausible,
threatening.

My hearing and sight fly inward,
collapse me gently.

A different universe hands me
a crust of bread, makes me agree to eat
as I crouch on the kitchen tile,
wait for the return of my senses.

III.
If this return is possible,
a housemate wants my birthdate and time for her chart
showing what the stars have determined,
but that’s no fun.

Why not assign
a vegetable to every month and look to vegetables
to determine our fates, our ultimately unpleasant multiversal sensations?

My vegetable sign
could be Asparagus, a real pisser
of an oracle.

I’m bitter because she has invested in multiple meanings.

I will not do the same.

Overteeming meanings would feed me and keep me in a chair.