Never Mind

after Paul Klee’s Uebemet (High Spirits), 1939

never mind the painter is dying

an evening star can still come out
and a fawn can still look on

never mind it’s 1939

an enlivened cry can still fly loose

never mind the dark encroaches

a boy can still hang
upsidedown in the park

never mind a baby carriage
tips up like a wheelbarrow
to dump out the child

a mother can still feel such glee
she needs to fling out all three hands
to balance her high-kicking heel

Jack Kristiansen is a poet existing in the composition books of William Aarnes. Kristiansen’s poems have appeared in The Tipton Poetry Journal, Stone’s Throw Magazine, FIELD and Sunsets and Silencers. Aarnes’ poetry has appeared in The American Scholar, Poetry, The Southern Review and Measure, among others.