A Clear Prejuduce

It was just a moment
A flash of movement
And glancing down the waiting room sofa
Paisley and vacant
I saw the female figures, one upright and still
One seated and slumped slightly in
The wheelchair.
It was then I detected
And soon self-corrected
A slight revulsion
A clear prejudice
And in an instance more
I reprocessed rethought and
Reoriented my attitude
Perhaps for better or at least more appropriately
To one of acceptance, or condolence
Or pity…
And then finally
Dropping my reading glasses down my nose
I saw the infant, the child, the joy
And knew the story more clearly,
Yet questioned mine more completely:
Why be repulsed, by prejudice?
Why rejoice due to circumstance?
Why?

Each Moment a Truth

Here I am,
A certain curiosity,
Energy finding a way
To manifest matter
Simultaneously organizing and abandoning
What seems for the moment truth
A fleeting illusion of certainty
Of fly and leaf
Spider and star
Of human hand which can
Take a try at guiding and cajoling
The process
Perhaps it is art, or life
Or the art of life.
And then you see it and wonder
From your own vested manifestation
How
Or why
Or just maybe?

Hawaiian Bonfire

No water could slake this fire
And Pele was pleased.
The cone of wood once green
With life
Now sun dried
Waited for release
And provoked with a match
Exploded into a vortex of flame
Heat spawning heat
Accelerating, purging
Into twisting pillars of light lapping
Into the night
Belching
Sparks and embers
Coursing skyward
Such earthly stars bound to find their ways home
Recapitulating the moment
Of our birth.

Going Deep

It’s the icy plunge
Without the caution of a toe in first
It’s the view from the plane
As it taxies away
It is cresting a ridge
Knowing that there is not enough light
To get back today
It is reading aloud your secret thoughts
As your smiling lips tremble
It is packing your bag
Accepting your fate
-It is going deep-
Knowing the irretrievable
Dreaming the irresistible
Sounding your untold self

The New Tide

It was the day when the tide
Both came in and
Went out simultaneously.
The sea kissed with its greedy tongue
And teased the shore with gifts from
Foreign lands and deep down places
While it also drew with grasping gulps
Of magnetic water translucent
Drawing off those that had stood for such certain time
On the high shores
And above the roar
Now raptured to a watery destiny
Perhaps tossed again far off
Perhaps swept relentlessly into the womb of return.
How could this be
-Such thirst and avarice
Such greatness and generosity-
Parallels that have strayed
From realities unfaltering course,
How could this be…?
It will take time, incalculable
To know this or forget
To bear up or abandon,
No simple shrug
No easy weave and comfort fit,
It will take some time
Harsh yet generous,
Ruthless and truthful in its way.

Lost Shoe

"No need for alarm..."
(Which surely sends a chill
in a world fraught with peril)
So,
No need for alarm,
But,
I have lost a shoe,
One that I wear frequently,
And although it is a big wide wonderful world
I can rule out most of it
And limit my search to somewhere near
The shoe that I still have.
It is the right one,
So possibly it has run away
No longer able to tolerate its proximity
With the Left?

I do live with a ferret.
He eats cat kibble
But when he is loose
He porpoises around
Randomly attacking small objects
And dragging them away to his secret lair
Which is usually under the bathroom sink
Or behind the toilet.
(I've tried baiting him with the remaining shoe
to see where he takes it.)
No luck.
And it will likely take some time
Before he is done with the first one.

So it makes me wonder,
What am I missing in my search,
A clue to this puzzle?
A need to think outside the shoebox?
This is a curious riddle
And either I solve it
Or
Admit to the possibility
That I am losing my mind,
One shoe at a time,
But,
No need for alarm.