The Lunatic, The Lover, and The Poet

Being a hopeless romantic does not

mean I am constantly disappointed

at unmet expectations; the course of

true love never did run smooth.

Seeing the extraordinary in the mundane,

does not mean we are blind to 

the unremarkable,

but freed from those who are stuck

in the shades of grey.

We see spectrums of unseen;

truths in trees, birds, and stones;

recieve foresight in lakes, sky,

and mirrors, and reflect in them

to understand what others pass

off as common.

One wild-haired visionary

told us two ways to look at life:

either everything is a miracle,

or nothing is.

I keep thinking about philosophy,

how we logically view miracles

as things that are impossible, but 

happen; if repeated, they are not

miracles. Truly?

Utilitarian or not, 

I wonder if apostles saw the 

acts of Christ, performed for them

at a rate I’ve not witnessed, myself,

as miracles each time. 

Do we deaden our sights because

something becomes familiar,

or revel every time that beauty

enters our scope?

I am all three of Theseus’s musings,

treated like a fool to those who

see nothing.

Where they see nothing, 

I see what could be.

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Perspective

All anger aside, I tend not to put stock in

an opposing view 

when it has been expressed to me

ad nauseam, and with little

evidence to support, against my claim. 

It’s like having a severe

allergy to something odd, like apples,

and someone keeps pushing that you

aren’t really allergic, they try to trick 

you by sneaking it in your meal, randomly,

hoping to get the reaction of

“Wow, I really loved this,” so they

can confess they put

the allergen into your food, 

and be right.

The reality of your throat closing,

swelling, as you gasp for air,

and they hover above you helplessly,

asking you what’s wrong, is a strong one.

The poisoner can’t understand the allergy

since they don’t experience it as you,

don’t feel sick when they eat apples,

don’t think past what their own experience

allows them to.

Whereas the poisonee is so aware

of the allergy, they keep vigilant

of labels in supermarkets, checking

jams, jellies, juices, candies, and 

baked goods, before they buy the product.

Likewise, when arguing with someone,

who has taken the cardboard cutout

of their specific argument,

and they get mad because you

“won’t hear their opinion,”

remember to listen to yourself,

and only you: not newscasters,

public opinion, nor thought professed

by higher minds. 

You are not less than adult for

backing out of a heated argument when

insults have been cast, nor are you

bitter for your pain, but wise.

Trust your experiences, and your

intuition. Love, if you can manage it,

trust if you dare,

and wrong no one, not even

in a most passionate moment.

To My Friend Who Advises to Shatter Something to Pieces

It’s not that there is not merit to

what you are saying.

Sure; there is certainly satisfaction

in breaking something apart,

reveling in the tiny fragments

that scatter where it once 

claimed whole.

Creation, even, 

in destruction.

But if you take an egg,

throw it with all of your strength,

and watch the soggy insides

drip and ooze against the concrete

where it met its demise

so suddenly,

you cannot take back your action.

Similarly, with your suggestion:

take a bat and smash it!

You have defied the first Creator

of your now beaten, 

broken object

that was once a vase, 

a lamp, a teapot, a glass,

never to be as it once was.

There is no coming back,

no repair you could possibly offer,

amount of glue, or time, or energy,

to give back to the first artist

who sat painting, painstakingly,

threw on the wheel, handbuilt,

or blew with heat and fire at their brow,

the sweat and blood worked into 

their art piece,

nor do you honor the first owner

who saw it as something that might

bring color and light into their

home, or coffee, how it matched

some part of their own soul and 

called to them.

It is a statement, to be sure,

and granted, I do not take to

any theory of broken windows

or juvenile crime from your 

emotion that you deigned art

the very moment a wooden

bat connected with a fragile

figment, standing in your

way of violent rebellion (it is, afterall,

in our nature to do such things),

but I must protest.

What is it, exactly, 

that you wish to state?

That you can break something?

Did you believe that you could not?

That no object lasts forever?

Were we not already aware?

Or is it a metaphor for the fragility 

of life, a moment taken to

destroy what took hours to 

design, seal, and paint?

What is the point of that?

If you took these pieces, and made

a mosiac, or pictures for a show,

slowed down time to watch that moment

preserving it on film forever,

but I don’t feel that is what you are doing,

no.

You destroy it for the sheer joy

of destroying something,

and nothing more than that.

I can not abide this.

I won’t.

Haunted

The air was frigid.
Strange for summer,
calm, like the earth was holding
her breath, free
of cicadian rhythms,
and her intuition told
her to be afraid.

She would walk the path
alone, turning slightly,
as if she felt watchful gaze
of something beyond
her understanding.

It wasn’t there for her,
she thought, but her skin
prickled, feeling the tiniest
amount of fear, a shadow
cast over her courage.

If she could just cross the bridge,
get over the small anxiety,
perhaps this goul would be
like the old wive’s stories.

Her legs had turned to pillars,
heart battering against her
rib cage– such effort it would
take to break this dampening
spirit.

A few steps from the threshold,
her curiosity conquered her fear,
what she saw would only chill her
to her soul.

No beast lay in wait to snatch up,
and eat her, nor was it any ghost
of lore, not clinging on to darkness
No jaberwocky to undo
her forest wandering.

There in the clearing, alone and dirty,
stood a child,
watching as if he’d
seen the fall of man,
through her.

His eyes betrayed distrust, a sense of
distant disappointment,
he’d step back into cover if she looked
like she might move toward him.

She thought of many things, tried to lure him with candy, singing soft
little lyrics to a child who would jump
at clapping.

Eventually, she turned away, glancing back, as if the
child might change his mind,
to cross the bridge,
come home with her.
He only stared back, his
gaze never wavered.

Some nights she woke from
deep sleep,
wondering if she had heard
sounds of
children laughing.