Defining the Problem Space

by Patrick Johnston

Ordnance Survey

I drew a Mind Trap Map
With nodes and arrows
And labels of
Thoughts and Concepts
And Snares
And Pitfalls
 
It delineated
And located
In Space and Time
Rigmarole
High-Faluting Ideas
Minutiae,
Schemes, Plans
Faultlines
And Flatline
Death Traps
 
And where to find Chekhov’s Gun
Should the need arise

 

 

The Me Problems and the You Problems

I sleeps my sleeps
And I dreams my many dreams
My many many sleeps dreams
 
There are place problem dreams
With deep bones that don’t change
As you look at them
There is the city dream
And the house dream
With many rooms
That expand and differentiate
Always the same
 
And it makes me wonder who I am
And I dreams my dreams
In my sleeps
My dreams
My dreams sleeps
Wonder who you are
 
And I say
Oh. It’s you again.

 

 

~4×10² km/s

I see you’ve gone
and fallen
In love again
 
All aboard.
Everyone. Everybody.
8.6 billion souls.
Home. Hurtling. Hurting. Laughing.
Loving.
At ~4×10² kilometres per second
Of lonely fragility
 
If you listen closely
You can hear
The motion of the Earth

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Patrick Johnston

Patrick Johnston is an Anglo-Australian writer of poetry, fiction, and hybrid work. His writing explores cognition, belief, grief, language, and systems under stress. His work has appeared in Blood + Honey, Argyle Literary Magazine, Roe River Review, Love and Literature, and elsewhere. He is a Pushcart Prize nominee and the author of several poetry collections and novels-in-progress.