Unzip a man,
you’ll find a smaller man sleeping.
Unzip that man,
you’ll find a window that needs cleaning.
Clean the window and look out,
you’ll see the man’s dreams
floating by.
Unzip a dream,
find something sort of like
what we call God.
Unzip that thing,
find footprints leading nowhere
that never end.
Zip the man back up
before he realizes.
So I do as he sits there
across from me
on the subway reading a newspaper.
— NEIL CARPATHIOS
Neil Carpathios is the author of seven full-length poetry collections, most recently, Lifeaholics Anonymous (Kelsay Books). His book of original aphorisms, The Lost Fragments of Heraclitus (Wipf and Stock), was also released in 2023. He’s taught at various universities and currently is Writer-in-Residence at Malone University in Canton, Ohio.