Poetry: Selections from Philip Venzke

The Little Zero Becomes A Bridesmaid

 

Not even at the dance

should you get near

the little zero.

 

If you look into her eyes

and saw the lost galaxies inside

you would wake up

with a star blossoming on your forehead.

 

If you pass by her endless circumference

you would wake up

in the grass covered with frost.

 

If you waltz with her eternity

you would wake up

in a balloon of skin,

your bones orbiting like moons.

 

At the dance,

if you came near

the orbit of the little zero,

you would never dance again.

The Little Zero Loves Marriage

 

The little zero met the one

and she liked how they looked together

as did many others

who agreed it was the perfect

union of opposites.

 

Fingers and toes rejoiced.

Those who could count cried.

It was the first double digit union.

 

Not much later little zero met two.

This was the perfect union she thought.

Together they could create time.

 

She imagined noon and midnight

waving fronds over their heads.

Imagined every month of the year

kneeling and bowing before them.

Even eternity was kissing their feet.

 

When she caught her one

ogling another universe,

eternal deaths were bestowed on one.

 

They divorced. She married two.

They divorced.  She dated three.

 

And so on.

The Little Zero Starts A Family

 

The little zero

(which encompasses the universe)

fell in love with herself

again

and conceived

another little zero.

 

That little zero

also fell in love with itself

and conceived

yet another little zero.

 

This conception

went on for an eternity.

 

When you open the first little zero

you will find another inside

and inside that

another

and another.

 

Where has the universe gone?

The Investors Of The Little Zero

 

Skip into the little zero

a shiny coin.

You will take out a rusty nail.

 

Toss in your bloated wallet.

You will take out a mangled anvil.

 

Gently present your father’s flag.

You will take out a piece of eternity.

 

This is how the little zero works.

 

Softly whisper to the little zero

the names of those you have lost.

You will take out a spinning galaxy.

 

Hand over your heart.

You will take out two.

 

So what will you invest with the little zero?

The Sun Rises On The Little Zero

 

Nada y pues

nada y nada

y pues nada

sings the little zero.

 

This was after

a sleep of great unrest.

Broken sleep dreams.

 

Figure dreams

where it saw its circle

disconnected.

 

It became a straight line.

It became other shapes.

 

And being each shape,

filled the little zero with ache.

It could not be just one thing.

 

When the little zero awoke

it was a circle again.

 

It knew it was nothing.

Would always be nothing.

An infinity of nada.

 

And it was eternally happy.

Philip Venzke grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin.  His poetry is widely published in magazines throughout the U.S. and Europe.  His chapbook “Chant to Save the World” was a winner of The James Tate International 2021 Poetry Prize (published July 2022 by SurVision Books, Ireland).  His second chapbook “Rules to Change the World” was published by Finishing Line Press in November 2023.  His poems also appear in “Contemporary Surrealist and Magical Realist Poetry (an International Anthology)” edited by Jonas Zdanys, Lamar University Press, 2022.