Joseph Massey

The Graduation

          for Alastair 

What’s the world 

if it isn’t broken?

So far, so to speak,

you’ve remained 

intact. Whoever

you are, wherever 

you’re headed, this 

poem is speaking 

to you. Take it

as an amulet—

it isn’t advice.

What can I say?

There’s no such 

thing as a stranger.

The poem proves it.

Most poems do.

A poem moves

from one line, 

one breath, one 

fuck up to the next.

Life itself is poetry.

The triumph 

is that we’re here at all—

that we continue. You continue. 

Listen as the lines fall,

and know the meaning

is in how you receive them.