A Documentary About Stalin

It was a “day in the life of” type of thing.
I watched his mustache. It was as thick
and bristly as a janitor’s broom.

Many of Stalin’s sixteen-hour work days
were spent making final approval
with neat check marks
on an endlessly updating list
of millions of people
it was thought should die.

Sometimes there was a name
that made his pen pause,
a coworker or old friend.

*

What if you were Stalin
going through all those names
late at night and one night
there was your name?

––

The Center Is Everywhere

Every point seeks to make every other point
into itself. The Sun will swallow the Earth
in a few billion years.

Wasps would convert the whole world
into a vast wasp nest, if they had
a few billion years.

I am one such point.
You are one such point, Kate.
You seek to make me into you.

---

Wes Civilz lives next to a dusty cactus in Tucson, Arizona, USA. He writes mostly poetry and nonfiction. Say hello at wescivilz.com.