The Impossibility of What You Wish For
By John Leonard

 

When you write you lay yourself open
To any reader—they will grasp at once
Who you are and will leap straight
To the impossibility of what you wish for.

 

Your only hope is to wish for what
No-one can live without, to show
The way that no-one can do other
Than follow as their truth of being.

 

Gut Feeling

You know about them, all the superstitions
Of following your instinct, your feelings,
As well as the latest biomedical view:
Microbiomes, the vagus nerve, blah, blah.

 

So perhaps that’s why so much I’ve met with—
Gainful employment, the public space, intellectual debate,
(Everything referring to nothing)—has
Given me the belly ache from hell.

 

John Leonard is an Australian poet with five published collections. His work has appeared many Australian and UK magazines and has been published in webzines; poems of his have also been translated into four different languages and published in those versions. His novel Shakespeare in Virginia was published in late 2024 in London.