Via Negativa

July 12, 2025 by Dave Bonta

Subtraction

Up by five o’clock, and put things in my house in order to be laid up, against my workmen come on Monday to take down the top of my house, which trouble I must go through now, but it troubles me much to think of it. So to my office, where till noon we sat, and then I to dinner and to the office all the afternoon with much business. At night with Cooper at arithmetique, and then came Mr. Creed about my Lord’s accounts to even them, and he gone I to supper and to bed.

five o’clockwork Monday
to take the top
of my office off
with night arithmetic
count to one

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Saturday 12 July 1662.

July 12, 2025 by Dave Bonta

Bloody-minded

Up by four o’clock, and hard at my multiplicacion-table, which I am now almost master of, and so made me ready and to my office, where by and by comes Mr. Pett, and then a messenger from Mr. Coventry, who stays in his boat at the Tower for us. So we to him, and down to Deptford first, and there viewed some deals lately served in at a low price, which our officers, like knaves, would untruly value in their worth, but we found them good. Then to Woolwich, and viewed well all the houses and stores there, which lie in very great confusion for want of storehouses, and then to Mr. Ackworth’s and Sheldon’s to view their books, which we found not to answer the King’s service and security at all as to the stores. Then to the Ropeyard, and there viewed the hemp, wherein we found great corruption, and then saw a trial between Sir R. Ford’s yarn and our own, and found great odds. So by water back again. About five in the afternoon to Whitehall, and so to St. James’s; and at Mr. Coventry’s chamber, which is very neat and fine, we had a pretty neat dinner, and after dinner fell to discourse of business and regulation, and do think of many things that will put matters into better order, and upon the whole my heart rejoices to see Mr. Coventry so ingenious, and able, and studious to do good, and with much frankness and respect to Mr. Pett and myself particularly. About 9 o’clock we broke up after much discourse and many things agreed on in order to our business of regulation, and so by water (landing Mr. Pett at the Temple) I went home and to bed.

who would truly view
a great confusion

and not answer security
or ropeyard yarn

our own odd water
will put matters better

the whole heart is agreed
on our regulation

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Friday 11 July 1662.

July 11, 2025July 11, 2025 by Luisa A. Igloria

Stridulation

river in November light between bare woods and mountain

At a regional food fair, next to a vendor
selling Asian-themed Crocs charms and another
handing out chile-lime dried beef samples, 
there's a guy inviting folks to try air-
fried crickets. There's one each in small
paper cups: their compact bodies no larger
than an inch, their hind legs neatly folded 
(not, as I once thought, the part of their 
anatomy responsible for producing their 
chirping song). Nearby, an oil-glossed mound 
of them in a bowl. From a little distance, 
they look no different from other crackling 
finger food my uncles scooped up by the handful 
in between swigs of cold San Mig: besides crickets, 
deep-fried locusts, pork belly, ceviche. It's with
their wings that crickets make their music— one wing 
has a scraper, the other an edge like a file. The central 
part of the wing is called the harp, and it amplifies 
the sounds they make. Some species will eat anything, 
whereas others feed only on flowers, fruit, and leaves. 
Their collective noun is "orchestra"— which is fitting,
even in the moment we bite down and the crunch 
resonates for a tiny minute in the balcony of our mouths.

July 10, 2025July 10, 2025 by Luisa A. Igloria

High Water Line

When we're looking at houses,
we ask our realtor what neighborhood
isn't so close to water and he scoffs.
This whole town is surrounded by water.
The Atlantic, the bay, three rivers. 
There are local legends of peninsulas
formed in the wake of nor'easters— 
or maybe some god spitting furiously 
out of his mouth. Barely two months after 
we arrive, we put chairs on top of the dining 
table, fill the tub with water, and contemplate
leaving town. In 1749, the Chesapeake rose 15 
feet and battered everything in sight. Every 
rain that goes on for days could lead to 
catastrophic flooding. People used to hold 
hurricane parties, but I don't think they do 
now. We listen to the news on the radio 
about rivers in other parts of the country;
how many have been rescued, how many
are still missing. How the houses bobbed
on roiling waters like toys in a giant drum.

July 10, 2025July 12, 2025 by Dave Bonta

Ice

Up by four o’clock, and before I went to the office I practised my arithmetique, and then, when my wife was up, did call her and Sarah, and did make up a difference between them, for she is so good a servant as I am loth to part with her. So to the office all the morning, where very much business, but it vexes me to see so much disorder at our table, that, every man minding a several business, we dispatch nothing.
Dined at home with my wife, then to the office again, and being called by Sir W. Batten, walked to the Victualler’s office, there to view all the several offices and houses to see that they were employed in order to give the Council an account thereof. So after having taken an oath or two of Mr. Lewes and Captain Brown and others I returned to the office, and there sat despatching several businesses alone till night, and so home and by daylight to bed.

the arithmetic
difference between us

is a nothing with several uses
we count and own

and others turn to ice
night and day

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Thursday 10 July 1662.

July 9, 2025July 9, 2025 by Luisa A. Igloria

Matrilineal

I have no sons; I've only birthed 
daughters, each given a distinct name. 
Sons can be named after their fathers, 
and their fathers' fathers before them. 
A Junior; the second, third, fourth.
Perhaps a remnant of kingly practice? 
Keep it all in the family— the name, 
the wealth; power, property, influence. 
Such inbreeding among royals was once 
thought to be the cause of haemophilia, 
though really the disorder is due to 
a mutation in the genes. Rare clot, 
flower blooming beneath the skin:
whose eulogy do you serve? Which
rebel thread pulls away, thickening 
to scroll its own emphatic calligraphy?

July 9, 2025 by Dave Bonta

Unearthed

Up by four o’clock, and at my multiplicacion-table hard, which is all the trouble I meet withal in my arithmetique. So made me ready and to the office, where all the morning busy, and Sir W. Pen came to my office to take his leave of me, and desiring a turn in the garden, did commit the care of his building to me, and offered all his services to me in all matters of mine. I did, God forgive me! promise him all my service and love, though the rogue knows he deserves none from me, nor do I intend to show him any; but as he dissembles with me, so must I with him. Dined at home, and so to the office again, my wife with me, and while I was for an hour making a hole behind my seat in my closet to look into the office, she was talking to me about her going to Brampton, which I would willingly have her to do but for the cost of it, and to stay here will be very inconvenient because of the dirt that I must have when my house is pulled down.
Then to my business till night, then Mr. Cooper and I to our business, and then came Mr. Mills, the minister, to see me, which he hath but rarely done to me, though every day almost to others of us; but he is a cunning fellow, and knows where the good victuals is, and the good drink, at Sir W. Batten’s. However, I used him civilly, though I love him as I do the rest of his coat. So to supper and to bed.

a hard turn
in the garden of love

making a hole
to look into the dirt

till night and I
are almost used up

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Wednesday 9 July 1662.

July 8, 2025July 8, 2025 by Luisa A. Igloria

Evaporation

"Are you – Nobody – too?"
            ~ Emily Dickinson


A man falls asleep in the deep 
folds of a department store massage chair, 
and no one notices. It's dark when he wakes,
still inside the store now empty and shuttered
for the night. It's not something he intended
to do, and is mildly embarrassed at the attention
it generates. Whereas, there are apparently
people who choose to disappear from their lives,
even hiring "night movers" to spirit them away
without a trace to a different and undisclosed
location. In Japan, they're called jouhatsu,
which means evaporation. They let go of their 
names, every material possession they ever 
owned; their jobs, their network of friends. 
They even let go of their families. Some 
disappear to save face, because they can't 
live down the shame of a terrible mistake. 
Some have become disenchanted with their old 
lives, others because the weight of existence 
is too much though death isn't an appealing 
option. Their sudden disappearance makes it seem 
as if they simply evaporated into the atmosphere. 
But they still have bodies; many of them may be 
floating around in big cities, in plain sight— 
pale and anonymous as sadness that can't be 
tied to any particular thing, with no need 
to answer to the call of anything other 
than the overwhelming desire to withdraw.

July 8, 2025 by Dave Bonta

Saké

At the office all the morning and dined at home, and after dinner in all haste to make up my accounts with my Lord, which I did with some trouble, because I had some hopes to have made a profit to myself in this account and above what was due to me (which God forgive me in), but I could not, but carried them to my Lord, with whom they passed well. So to the Wardrobe, where alone with my Lord above an hour; and he do seem still to have his old confidence in me; and tells me to boot, that Mr. Coventry hath spoke of me to him to great advantage; wherein I am much pleased. By and by comes in Mr. Coventry to visit my Lord; and so my Lord and he and I walked together in the great chamber a good while; and I found him a most ingenuous man and good company. He being gone I also went home by water, Mr. Moore with me for discourse sake, and then parted from me, Cooper being there ready to attend me, so he and I to work till it was dark, and then eat a bit and by daylight to bed.

after dinner
I make up a god

give the war an old
boot to eat

I am anyone with saké
I work till daylight

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Tuesday 8 July 1662.

July 7, 2025December 15, 2025 by Luisa A. Igloria

The Loss of Time

When is it a metaphor, and when is the blue
curtain just a blue curtain, a car stalled
on the road just the result of a bad battery and
not a cosmic memo about never getting to where 
you want to go in life? There are three days 
this summer when the moon's orbit will once more 
place it at its farthest point from the equator; 
this causes the earth to spin much faster, resulting 
in shorter days. But what astrophysicists mean is 
shorter by milliseconds— the loss of time may not 
even be immediately noticeable, until a half 
century from now when perhaps we'll no longer 
have 24-hour days or 7-day workweeks. Other kinds 
of losses might only seem inconsequential—the hairs 
on your head, the thinning of sparrow populations. 
The decline of honeybees and wildflowers from habitat 
loss. Do you wonder why it's so difficult now 
to hear the whippoorwill sing its name, signalling 
the end of the season of loneliness or frost?