Seth Rosenbloom
Seth Rosenbloom is a poet and a consultant to companies on leadership. His poems have recently appeared in Poetry Northwest, Tupelo Quarterly, Orange Blossom Review and other publications. His work has been nominated for Best of the Net and been a finalist for the Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Prize. Seth was born in Washington, D.C. and he lives in Seattle.
Multiple Choice
Three months after my father died,
I was in Kane Hall to take the LSAT
and in the statements of
Whereas and Therefore, I felt
the motions of his mind.
His confidence in logic, and belief that
when he gave consideration either to
(a) the client
(b) the firm
(c) the law
(d) himself
he must conclude,
despite inference or implication, that
there is one, and only one answer:
(e) none of the above.
Barely five minutes into the test,
its muscularity of reasoning
ruled out any desires I had
beyond completing the correct oval
on the machine-readable form.
His death, my finishing college, applying to law school—
all these things happened years ago,
back when people used to say committed,
instead of died by
suicide.
And back when I used to wonder if
I’d do any of the things he had done so well.
