majority advice
majority advice
a majority of the time
when the minority warns you
that you are behaving badly
it is not only so but also
you have revealed that you understand
such a minority of the minority’s experiences
that you have not only been careless
but careless to the degree of warranting correction
warranting notification of the nonsense
of your nonidentification
with the minority’s concerns
and then
in the majority of cases
the major actions you must take are:
first, do no further harm –
do not defend your mostly indefensible ignorance;
second, apologize for the wounds (intentional or un-) you have created
or (more likely) further inflamed;
third, apologize for the effort your edification has cost someone
who undoubtedly has better things to do;
fourth, listen attentively and humbly to the majority of this other viewpoint,
even if you only see it by squinting;
fifth, live your life differently, eyes a little wider, viewfinder a little more sensitive, field of view a little larger;
sixth, help someone else from your frame of reference
also see things with this new frame
at least a majority of the time
Katalapi
Katalapi
en el bosque
con las Cotes
el agua canta por nosotros
the notes, rapid and green,
clear away the cobwebs between ourselves
leave us feeling
like we’ve drunk from a cool spring
freshen our eyes
and still our thirsty tongues
we make ephemeral circles
understanding nothing lasts
understanding also joy is the honey
that keeps us flying into the thistles
the most powerful thing I did today
was share breath con un canelo
and put a tiny, black, shriveled seed
into the earth –
now something might someday root
sitting still
sitting still
sitting with the pain of the world
I stroke Syd’s flipper
pat his back
listen
while the ocean pours out of him
it doesn’t matter so much
where our brokenness lies
where the blows came from
how they were dealt
we most need
to sit with each other’s pain
bear witness to
the immense hurt
we sometimes cannot even name
and recollect
the strong resilient beings we are
able to knit our fractured selves
back together
sometimes with even
more abiding bonds
if only we can remove
our breastplates first
and be vulnerable
together
when the land was wild
when the land was wild
había otra vez
in a thin country
bound by sea and spines
where ghost ships sailed
and sirens still sang
a race of tiny deer
the size of tomcats
with delicate antlers
spotted sides
and rounded bottoms
había otra vez
in the pure rushing waters
turquoise white and green
a cat of the river
half a man’s size
playful and inquisitive
its sensitive whiskers ever active
and its cheeks always stretched
into a grinning half smile
había otra vez
in the dark forest
where spiderwebs were like stairsteps
ascending into sky
an impossibly grand woodpecker
so brilliant when it landed
the alerce trees ignited
and it dripped sparks
across the beings of this country
of course
this was all in a different time
far younger than now
when the land was still wild
and the legends were true
now all we feel is absence
the cold shadow of loss
where warm flesh once was
