Self-Portrait as Carefully-Written Poem

Each line a soft and velvet shelf upon

Which every syllable’s a gem. A notch

For each to sit in, snug … ten gleaming swans

Perched rung-like on the water’s plane. Now watch

How, necklace-like, each gem will sound in turn

Its note, a melody of light, when pain

Arrives, the steady visitor. You’ll burn

Your eyes. Don’t look too long. Inside the flames

Of facets, crown to girdle, there lurk rays

Of information that perhaps you should wait

To learn, or never learn at all, or play

Dumb about if you do. Or you could place

The gems inside a case, inside a safe,

Inside a mine outside of time and space.

Wes Civilz

Wes Civilz lives next to a dusty cactus in Tucson, Arizona. His writing has appeared or is forthcoming in journals such as The Threepenny Review, The North American Review, and New Ohio Review. He posts writing-oriented videos on Instagram under the handle @wes_civilz.