On Reading, 1.
Perhaps I am a literary coward
because
I do not enjoy
the works of those
who describe
the Human Condition
in too graphic of terms,
preferring, rather,
the ones who may cloak it in shades of blue and innocence,
fleeting wisdom,
unshaded contours that are no less deep,
occasional irony that sears with greater potency,
who tip-toe around it as if it were sly and mercurial,
a sometimes kind,
often cruel,
little creature–
for that is what it is.