Self-Portrait as Staircase

Robert Okaji

Still and underfoot,

ever between, I rise

and decline, preach

beginning and end, first

to last. Press your heel

against my heft. Lift

and surge forward, up

or down, I remain in

place. Believe in gravity,

in duality, in cause. I

never falter. Trust me.

Robert Okaji lives in Indiana. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Vox Populi, Book of Matches, North Dakota Quarterly, The High Window and elsewhere.