The world’s consequences
Are all unintended,
None inconsequential,
Whether braided in packs
Or packed in storms, including
Those that were intended
And happened to occur
And led to the biggest
Consequences of all—
Unintended belief
That some consequences
Descend from intention.
Content
Thursday, June 1, 2023
The World’s Unintended
Wednesday, May 31, 2023
The Droplet
Surface tension scoots it
Up the track to be read
For its glucose load.
Another measurement,
Everything fine this time.
The test has done its job.
The blood has done its job.
The nurse has done his job.
Whatever’s dying here
Has got nothing to do
With sugar imbalance.
Where did the droplet go?
Tuesday, May 30, 2023
The Sleeping
You are global local.
What do you want to sleep
About? When you go, what
Arrives? You had a dream
Sequence about being
Trapped at a winter pass,
Very old fashioned stuff,
Sitting in a cabin
Keeping notes on wisdom
Of when it would be safe
To leave, when you should stay.
After a while you were
Turning into a tale
Of someone lured to death
Then with the twist ending
You thought might make it sell.
You woke up with the tale,
Standard horror fiction—
Wholly global local.
That’s not what you wanted
To get to sleep about.
Monday, May 29, 2023
A Golden-Plowed Sky
A polygonal frame,
Just a bit of window
With nothing much going
On between boundaries.
It had been a hard day,
But for now you were clean
And not in too much pain,
And you had an angle
On a golden-plowed sky.
Sunday, May 28, 2023
The Carrot
It is a reduced state of living
This keep-you-alive state of living
The slightly carroty aftertaste
Of the hospital brand of toothpaste
Saturday, May 27, 2023
The Damned Leaf
The great leaf lies on the floor
Like the wide train of a gown
In an allegorical
Illustration of flowers,
Where each blossom is portrayed
As a high-society
Person attending a ball—
Imagine the Met Gala
A year flowers were the theme.
But no. This is just a leaf,
A huge, green, leathery leaf,
And you’re human, so you want
To know, right away, two things—
How’d it get here, what’s it mean?
But the damned leaf says nothing.
Friday, May 26, 2023
The Local Patch
It’s a Velcro world, all in all,
All flexible hooks and tubes
Each one snagged by everyone
Curling and twisting around.
Sometimes you just surrender,
Observe your ambit of twist.
Watch out! You’ll hallucinate,
Stuck in the thicket like that.
Sometimes you struggle and twist,
And briefly feel more alive.
That hallucination’s vast—
It’s how the Velcro world grows.