here are the things that i know:

the himalayas are still growing up,

and sharks don't actually kill

that many people per year.

 

i know that vodka tastes

better than disappointment

and you look like heartbreak

when you're walking away.

 

i also know that

we're killing off the rainforests

and running out of money;

and that this one time a roman emperor

loved a man so much

he raised him up into a god.

 

what i don't know

could make a million more poems

but here is the shortlist:

 

i do not know if stars

get lonely, or if angels have

to take their shoes off inside heaven,

or how perfume is made.

i do not know if antinous

even wanted to be a god.

 

(i do not know if your bones ache

the way mine do when i do not

have you near.

 

i don't know if i want to know, either.)

 

(a.k.)