Poetry: Mark Young

Mark Young

This will delay your application

A person rides a small sled. 

In busy times will also fun-

ction as a planning pad, keep 

track of water intake, product-

ivity, & mood swings. Has that

thicker paper covering resistant 

to bleeding. Drag & drop any-

where. It's well & good for 

processes to exist but things 

go much more smoothly when 

total control is relinquished.

***

Dashcam footage

It got done. The two

legs became one. There

wasn't much traffic to

bother us. I took an in-

ventory of the icebox. His

going made the others

impatient. The car began

to slide. I was too far away

to recognize anybody.

***

The Thing is Unfolding

I decide to open an online store for spiritual message miscellany. Decide to call it “The Thing is Unfolding” since that covers a gamut of several religious beliefs, is not restricted to or aimed at any one particular dogma, & suggests insights into the workings of the soul.

But nobody is particularly spiritual anymore & initial trading is very slow. I add books & online courses for such manual skills as origami, flag furling, & kimono dressing. They do nothing for the financial health of the business; more the reverse, since the markets for such things are tightly controlled & their barriers to entry expensive.

Trading goes downhill. Sales hover near zero. I can no longer afford to even maintain the site let alone pay suppliers for the goods I offer. I hold a final closing down sale. I call it “The Thing is Folding.” 

***

That different voice

Can’t tell

you anything

you haven’t

heard

before. Only

change

the timbre

pitch

accentuate

some different

syllables

in the hope

the telling

might come

a little closer

to you. It 

is vanity

speaking.

***

Bio: Mark Young's most recent books are a downloadable pdf, The Hit List, published by Scud Editions, & The Complete Post Person Poems, available in both Kindle & paperback, published by Sandy Press. Both titles came out in February 2025.

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Setu, March 2025