by Eddie Aderne

“The word Eigengrau means own grey, or intrinsic grey, or brain grey.
It is what you see when you close your eyes.”
—Patricia Lockwood, reviewing a collection of essays on Nabokov
in the London Review of Books

O Eigengrau, O Eigengrau:
You are the word I need for now!
I look upon the news, and ouch!
I feel the need to sigh and grouch;
But close my eyelids all the way,
I see instead intrinsic grey,
My own, my brain’s, true status quo:
O Eigengrau, how grau you grow!