ice: traveler’s temptation
the slick angular cubes and prisms
beg a tongue to lick and linger
to feel the polar opposite
of oppressive equatorial heat
thick with humidity, deferral, languor
don’t think about the risk
the bubble-studded beauties plead
and we weak temperate beings
succumb to their promise of cold
berak-berak be damned
defining concepts
terror:
the unpredictable unthinkable
happening to someone
you might love
anti-terror:
gifting stability and certainty
to someone
struggling to survive
*we are all beings in a ring*
turning off hate
one little step toward peace:
disconnect the loudspeakers
how much violence begins
as annoyance –
the simmering ire of being woken
when you just want rest?
the Christian dawn singalong
jars as much as the
Muslim call to prayer
in America
we have our own sectarian divides:
D vs. R
blue vs. red
north vs. south
east vs. west
white collar vs. blue
agnostic vs. religious
educated vs. working class
haves vs. have nots
(note the bias –
all my own assignments
stated first)
imagine if Fox News were broadcast
over speakers in Memory Square
or if my grandparents were forced
to take in a daily podcast
questioning their faith?
even good people break
silence saves our sanity
a path through the dark
trekking in the dark
with no torch
I glide along uneven ground
follow the pale ribbon of path
keep pace with my son’s
pale calves below black shorts
try not to consider
snakes
do my best to noiselessly
fade into the grey
Palu Museum megaliths
the thousand-year-old figures
show the body plain
and filled with power
fierce naked stone spirits
all eyes ears nose genitalia
perceiving generating nourishing life
Alex told me about the cadaver
what they do to help the students
view it as form not being:
cover the face (obviously)
but also the hands
the hands disturb them
when they wield the knife
too personal and desperate
too likely to move
every day everywhere
we learn what makes us human
all us apes gathered in a clearing
thinking about the ones before us
who chipped stone with stone
to leave for us these silent symbols
saying who we were
off the beaten path
straddling intrepid and foolhardy
being brave yet reasonable
managing risk and reward
fear and amazement
like balancing black and white checks
on the temple guardians’
chessboard sarongs
