the essence of evermore

i showed jenny a picture i took

while at the salton sea

it is the only one i snapped

used my phone

 

it was a pier

maybe a foot or so

above water

maybe 20 feet long

 

it didn’t start on shore

and not sure if it ever did

just that it was there

 

a pier

in the water

serving no purpose

decaying in the hot sun

no beginning

no end

or anyway to tell

which side was which

 

i had sat for a while

and stared

saying,

“if you don’t see this

as existential

then you don’t get existentialism”

 

it was built

at one time

but its builder

has long since lost

any use for it

 

it is all alone

bleached white

on black water

and one day

it won’t be there at all

 

***