Haiku Sonnet: Lost and Unfound

Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, “The Empty Museum”
2004, installation, sound, light.
Photo by Hermann Feldhause
In my museum
of lost things, everything is
invisible, marked
only by the scent
of regret. The windows are
never open and
any visitors
weep in corners, unable
to find their way out.
I inventory—
a wince for each item still
not on display. As
night materializes,
I dream of letting ghosts go.

The Muse as Dreamer

All of this is a continuation of the lie, but if I am consistent in it, approximates the truth in its effect.

—Franz Kafka, diary entry, May 11, 1916

Here’s a dream from high school: knowing beyond doubt my strategy for running cross country races was all wrong, I hit upon [...]