Marcus Bales

The World Remakes Itself

The world remakes itself until it’s strange 
to us, and then again, until the state 
of being strange has been itself undone 
by being strange. And when the news comes back
to us, though fast or slow, it’s always late,
and we’re surprised that actions we’d begun 
are overtaken by events, or fate.
From Marathon to Athens at the run
to real-time Youtube combat from Iraq, 
the context of each battle lost or won
is viewed through faulty lenses fogged or black
with myth, illusion, zealotry, or hate. 
However fast or slow the news may range
the speed of understanding doesn’t change.

Not much is known about Marcus Bales, except he lives and works in Cleveland, Ohio, and his work has not appeared in Poetry or The New Yorker.