Bare Bones

I’m making the end of the line explicit /
see it tilting toward the right—forward /

to the breech—then return to another /
origin, another chance to begin, blank /

where no slash is necessary even /
a \ to mark an opposite to the drop off /

a redundancy among what some may /
claim are already redundancies though /

in this piece, I consider them not /
—instead the implicit unfolded, signaling /

I am aware of the finite line, which two or three /
a scholar might quite distinguish with a /, not that I’m /

an inveterate obscurantist or ornery cuss /
just making it clear, willing to discuss /

John Zedolik is an adjunct English professor at Chatham University and Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and has published poems in such journals as Abbey, The Bangalore Review (IND), Commonweal, FreeXpresSion (AUS), Orbis (UK), Paperplates (CAN), Poem, Poetry Salzburg Review (AUT), and others. In 2019, he published his first full-length collection, entitled Salient Points and Sharp Angles (WordTech Editions), and in 2021 he published another collection, When the Spirit Moves Me (Wipf & Stock). In 2023 he published his third collection, Mother Mourning, and in 2024, he published his fourth collection, entitled The Ramifications (Wipf & Stock), which consists of five long, experimental poems. In February of 2025, he published his fifth collection, Lovers’ Progress (Wipf & Stock) and in December of 2025 published his sixth collection, Triple Muse (Wipf & Stock).