Simple and Sentimental

I like toast.
It is nearly the perfect food.
The crust is a must.
It must have tooth.
It must speak as I eat.

Something about food from the fire:

Bread browned, almost burnt
Flour from grain
Grain from seed
Seed from sun…
I return the heat
And release its wonder
Coming close to holding such
Solar secrets upon my tongue.

 

The Stay

The nightmare is the first foolish step.
It is the frog folding his towel before stepping into
The slowly warming pot
It is the car careening with no working brakes
It is the emaciated bear on the melting ice flow
It is the child lost and bleeding
In the rubble of a once safe home.
It is choosing to be slovenly selfish
Lazy and stupid
It is the quick sand sucking,
Sucking at my feet
And it is the first foolish step
Which we choose to take
Every day.


And so …


I close my eyes, to have a stay
Of all these things that have come my way
I blink and turn and seek anew
A different, better point of view
Erased but surely not ignored
The selfish hate which I abhor
I quest that you and I can find
A better stronger peace of mind
And look within where such resides
A common good found on all sides
And if such hope may have its day
We struggle less, we have the stay.

 

Foggy Glass

I see you seeing me
I have wiped the mirror
Or so it seems
The foggy glass still shows unevenly
Refractions
Bending lost light through
Patinas
Needing soap and scrapping
Looking for the wabi sabi
The truer reflection
Worn sculpted shaped eroded
Visions and revisions
Caught in this newer morning light
Bent and blended
Hidden identities are summoned:
They are
Charged and electric.

River in the Sky

Look up just now
And you might see
Catching your eye
As they did today mine
A massing of migrants
An assemblage of blackbirds
Winging by the hundreds and thousands
Schooling in a serpentine stream
Moving within an imperative dream
Flowing with an efficiency found in such unity
Wide as a river and miles and miles long
Drawn high aloft by imploring instincts
Defying death while affirming life
An avian stream
A river of life
Passing by in the sky.

Falling Down

Falling down has its upside
If you happen to roll over and look up
You may see what passes you by when
You are more normally squared to the ground.
 
There is the moon
In its comings or goings
Pale and ghostly blue
Dodging amongst the clouds
Which seem to sluice both north and south
Simultaneously
Condensing and vaporizing
In a passing cycle-dance.
 
And then there was a tiny, downy feather
A lesser avian cloud
Donated by some passing Chickadee
Falling and rising
Pulsed by Brownian movement
With no sure destination
Moving into the great soupy sea
Of innumerable objects
Specks of dust so small
That may join and grow into sky spectacles  
Of storms and rainbows
Crossing the heavenly horizon
And finally beyond the eye
And into the realm of dreams.

 

 

Pin Head

Reality check.
Looking around the universe
There is a lot to see.
I wonder if you and I see it the same way:
Exactly, somewhat, or what planet are you from?
Sometimes I see butterflies;
They hatch from their pupa
And fly away.  On their very first day!
Looking good
They navigate the wind,
Skirting through the hickories
They find an invitation to a flowering meadow
Full of nectar,
And fuel up.
And all with the brain the size of a pin head.
They make their way;
Some over generations and continents.

My brain is bigger
Maybe 1400 grams
About 3 pounds
Smaller than a whale or an elephant…
It took me 20 some years to grow it.
Several school and many lessons later
I may be smart enough to riddle out
Butterfly realities,
 Maybe.
A little.
My brain is like yours and billions of others
Sapiens-wise
Intelligent but maybe not all that smart.
We spend much of our realities
Building flying machines
Burning fuels
Poisoning bugs
Shooting guns
Killing things,
Homo homicidal,
‘Cause our bigger brains think it is the right thing to do.
It’s our advanced reality
An unrepentant reality
We do it and cannot stop
So it seems.

Here’s an idea:
Spend a few minutes with a butterfly.
They won’t mind a visitor.
And then answer the question(s)
That stir in your big brained reality.
You’ll come up with a few.
Me?
I am wondering who the pinhead is
In this universe?