Ode to the Inherent Shapes

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Micah Seidel

 

This right here

This represents an adventure

Laughs and fearful smiles

Forests and ravines

Treasure on the other side

Never reaching anything

Late nights and infinite maps

And a hidden familiarity deep within everything

To keep steady company along the way

 

This in here, deep in the center

This represents letting go

Of all the eyes

And minds

Loving deep and finding it everywhere

And seeing nothing else

 

This, in the corner, behind the wooden desk

This represents honesty

But the more it’s left away the less it feels like the truth

Slowly shrinking

And a hidden lie is noble to stay hidden

So wait a little longer

Until it’s completely gone

And the truth melts through the splinters

 

This, on my pillow

This represents my head

And my eyes

And the colors that enter them

And how I think they’re wrong

And how I form and shape them

Until they look like something you and I can use

 

And of course we all know where they came from

I should tell him and not her

And write it down

And look it over closely

But that’s all been said before

So say something new

 

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Micah Seidel is in SEBS and currently studying biological sciences. He expects to graduate in 2026. His hometown is Highland Park, New Jersey, and he loves to write stories, poems, and screenplays. He also loves to make documentary films about science, environmental issues, and food systems, as well as fiction-based films.

Micah wrote this poem in a course taught by Lindsay Haber, who selected the piece for inclusion in WHR.