Some books become part of you.

“A Hero of Our Time,”

By Russian novelist Mikhail Lermontov:

 

A handsome, engaging army officer

Specializes in seducing women,

Not always sexually.

When he is sure they want him,

He moves on.

 

What stays with me?

The irony.

How can someone

So obviously a scoundrel

Be a hero?

 

Look at the heroes of our time.

How quick we are to

Anoint one, and

How quick they are to disappoint

 

There is a hole

In our lives

That heroes cannot fill.

 

Intimacy,

Friendship,

Community.

 

These are the things that matter.

 

May, 2018