i. Olfactory Cinema

Certain smells

stop you mid-step,

in close-eyed smile –

long-lost memories

project on the backs

of your eyelids

ii. The Merits of Self Awareness        

Discerning depth

is abstruse

when viewing a valley

from above

iii. Independence

Be not

the gnomon,

but the sun

iv. Thin On Top

Winter imminent –

Final

southern

migration

v. You Never Get a Second Chance to Make a First Impression

Even strong magnets

repel

when misaligned

vi. (But It’s What’s Inside That Counts)

Passersby rarely glance

through

a well-decorated window

vii. A Powerless Rosetta

When electricity ends

we will construct pyramids

with our computers

###

Stefan Strychar was born and raised in Detroit. He left Michigan after college, and in 2011 earned an MFA in creative writing from Fairleigh Dickinson University. He spent the next year as a poetry reader for The Literary Review. In his travels since, he has completed an MLS in archives management, interned at Harvard and MIT, released three albums of music, and studied black and white film photography.

He is currently the Poetry Editor for the Forest for the Trees Journal.

“Morning Existentialism 7” originally appeared in Pulchritude Press.