People Plan

Is there any measure more biblical / than a stone’s throw?

A photo illustration of a black-and-white headshot of poet Matthew Tierney. Behind him are two outlines of his silhouette in two different shades of yellow against a solid darker brown background.

So little room on the platform,
it’s dystopian.

Can’t decipher whether
my fellow commuter, intent on his tablet,
is a proficient first-person shooter,
if I’m his equal.

Is there any measure more biblical
than a stone’s throw?

Underground,
what sunlight there is is refused us.
I’ve mixed feelings pointing out the obvious.
Either you understand my ambivalence

or you do not.
In the kingdom of conspiracies
anyone of us could be a theorist.

On the surface
fruit rots in horn-shaped bowls.
Mirror man, our hair’s turning silver,
last chance to exchange looks.
You first.

Matthew Tierney
Matthew Tierney won the 2013 Trillium Book Award for Poetry for his book Probably Inevitable.