Per Contra Spring 2009 Light Verse

Per Contra Spring 2009 Light Verse Supplement

M.G. Piety

I wish I were a man

so I would not have to learn the difficult things
but could always look to others to explain
the mysteries of the countertop and drain

The Little Witnesses

Birds are everywhere
intently peering left and right
right and left
through every crowd
as if looking for an acquaintance
with the urgency of someone
afraid of missing an appointment

I look at them sometimes
to see if it is perhaps
me they are waiting for
No, the impatient look always says,
it is not you
and then the gaze darts
off in another direction

Ruminations on Generalizations

I wonder if dogs recognize one another as dogs
or whether they don’t just see a kindred spirit
of a more specific sort
and whether it isn’t a mistake to pass
every particular into a class

M.G. Piety teaches philosophy at Drexel University. She has published numerous articles on the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard, as well as on other philosophical subjects, in both scholarly and popular journals. Her work has appeared in The International Kierkegaard Commentary, Faith and Philosophy, Rockhurst Review, ASK (the journal of the College of Arts and Sciences of Drexel University) and the Times Literary Supplement. She is presently translating two books by Kierkegaard for Oxford University Press.