1.
just because
some old men

have always
loved palavering

inventing ridiculous
vocabularies

(way before Aristotle
long past Hegel)

we labor under millennia
of misunderstood metaphor

our reptilian
motor-brains

dictating
our relationship

with time
& each other

 

 

2.
in whale-fin
& bat-wing

hide bones for
five fingers

at some point
inconceivably

distant in the past
our shared ancestors

parted, some pressed
to return to the sea

some managing
to take to the air

& ours, remaining
in the dirt

to crawl like
bugs on a ball

curious: those minds
not confined to

forward & back
left & right

 

 

3.
just because
love feels

like a journey
doesn't mean

there's a destination
you never arrive

& if you want to avoid
unnecessary departures

remember
your partner's

personhood
that s/he

carries the same cross
(the human condition)

so follow somebody's
golden rule

 

 

4.
in the garden
columbine

rise from the soil
like little fists

ready to open
from whose palms

flowers will emerge
spurred stigmata

hiding nectar
deep enough

to draw the long-tongued
hummingbirds

almost as if
they were

designed
to do so

 

 

5.
like Kant
that old coot
 
(imagining metaphors
for space & time

had some reality
& could prove

the existence of god)
folks think because

the universe
follows rules

(laws that dictate
how matter behaves)

somebody
must've written them

 

 

6.
a lover's hands:
almost miraculous

dexterity, beyond
utility of tools

unbridled tenderness
open palms & fingertips

cupping ribcage
like a long-sought Grail

 

 

7.
it's not tough
to imagine

that matter
simply is

& always
has been

(forever entangled
with emptiness)

or that love carries
evolutionary advantages

it's just hard
to accept

 

 

8.
once whale-song
circled the globe

(their lyrics now
unbearably lonely)

& the language
of elephants, subsonic

carries for miles
their calls & responses

only our language
written as it is

travels through time
misconceptions

& imaginings
carved in stone

around our necks
dragging us down

 

 

9.
any idea regarding
ultimate reality

following from some
story or metaphor

(no matter how much
beauty or utility):

ipso facto
a non sequitor

 

 

10.
time to rise
from our knees

(bent too long
to the past)

& walk forward
to our future

hand in remarkable
human hand