Thank you to Mark Antony Rossi for publishing my poem 

in the April issue of Ariel Chart.

Contraries

 

When faced with a need

to discuss things of consequence,

when it seems hard

to have your wisdom accepted;

when you only wish

to say things imaginatively sensible,

with resplendent wit,

let yourself float

within mental transitional space,

and spin alternating conversations

upon your mental carousel.

 

While comments twirl,

imagine the other side,

wishing to discard their own bad ideas

and adopt your paradigm,

because you used expert verbal brushwork 

like a Van Gogh,

or dealt out ideas like a cardsharp 

with a dictionary rather than a deck,

because you set up your carnival grounds

with the most scholarly carnival rides. 

 

Mint the Janus coin in your favor,

let both sides come up heads,

close the gap,

like a once unfortunate cut now completely healed.