Robert Wooten

El

Here, at this point, is where it happened

by invitation only.  In the mystical order

of things, one feels the pull and tow of others

where it is not known that this could happen,

leaving only that, and there they go, one

after one, on that hound’s tooth way.

We step toward a different time, one

might say, and out of the past, as if the future

continued that way.  Well, you know it happened

and came to pass—because you’re

not the only one, if this was not known,

in this area, by your view.  As time is a box,

this had an end here, but, when you inquire

as if you were the one who knew, when

that time ends, if at this point, it was not

the one you knew, a new form of closure

can carry you away.  There you are, with a new

knowledge from a new source, a different

indifferent time, without any future to behold,

what if you were not alone?  Then, here come

the others, knowing with you, about to fall

into an indifferent end, each at a loss

about the same, when it is someone else

that paid.

Robert Wooten does hold an MFA in poetry from the University of Alabama (1998) and earned an MA in English with a creative writing focus from North Carolina State University (1994).  He was awarded first place in the winter 2021-22 Dream Quest One poetry competition.