The heart of nothing

Was left to you

In the barricaded libraries

of paperbacks 

James Thurber, Arthur Cowell, 

and others 

You'd lain there with a friend  

tripping on the barricaded lsd

and saw a pattern on the white wall -

A piece of marble glued above the fireplace 

with sealer used on atomic bombs

your dad said proudly

Projectiles with depleted uranium he said 

would penetrate the beveled armor of Russian tanks -

The pattern

Which both you and your friend saw 

was just a ski logo

repeated K2 K2 K2 K2 K2