Zeroing Out

Only one absence in its presence changes things:
zero. Take one and hold a place for what is not
standing behind it. This lack of essence makes more.
Zero is the temporalized question, “What if?”
Once, I read, all creation was nothing but
potential, another word for what is yet not.
I like to think zero gives value to the dead.
Here we each are, alone, it seems, an “ego sum”
without remainder, yet trailing us, unpresent,
are our dead, infinite zeros after our one,
raising us in our finitude to infinite
limits, by definition, we can never reach.

Richard Stimac lives in the St. Louis, Missouri (USA) area. He has published two poetry books: Blood, Water, and Stone (Spartan Press, 2026); and Bricolage (Spartan Press, 2022). Richard explores time and memory through the landscape and human-scape of the St. Louis region. He invites you to follow his poetry Facebook page: “Richard Stimac poet”