Late Night Poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

Late Night

The woods in the fireplace is glowing embers,
promise nothing but an ending. In a yard a dog
bark to hear its loneliness, I tell it to stop it hears
me, curls up and goes to sleep. I take a safety pin
thread its needle end through my ear lobe and
I do the same with the other ear.

The blood is white like water, painless and
impartial. I look in the mirror and see nothing
that looks like a pirate. No escape from boredom
and I remove the pins. The dog’s wakes from its
slumber, barks. My ears hear Nirvana’s echo
rippling on the shores of eternity.