edited by Doug Holder

Russell Koty works for a real estate appraisal firm in Ball Square and raised in Somerville. Koty’s poems have such power because he recognizes that those emotions and thoughts which we think are the most personal and private are actually the most universal. Too many poets pull back, afraid to reveal too much. Yet, the deeper and further Koty goes, the more familiar the terrain. The more familiar the twinge. His journey is our journey, he is just braver than we. To have your poems considered by the Lyrical , send them along with a brief bio to: Doug Holder, 25 School St., Somerville, Ma. 02143; dougholder@post.harvard.edu.

Does One Need Balance?
by Russel Koty

Does one need Balance?
And how does one go about
getting it,
and where there is an antenna
giving off reception; who
determines the recipient?
Questioning reality,
Living things prone to mortality;
when good things happen is evil
always to follow?
Is it possible to know if you can’t
see tomorrow?
And if tomorrow comes, then it
won’t be today,
I guess my mind is suspicious
this way:
Balancing fact from fiction, then
determining the truth;
is truth then reality if determined
with sleuth?
A scientific mind misguided this
way;
I can only believe father time
had his day,
And then when I think that
there is just nothing left,
Just one more question keeps me
on this conquest;
If I’m really me and you really
you
Why does this question seem
like a record miscued?
And did I really say that or did I
just think it?
Hold on. Was that recorded?
Stop, rewind, play the
feedback—
Imagine if life went something
like this?
Maybe it does.
Knowledge proves us all different!