Is Earth, after all, no more
Than boundaries?
Gods and governments?
Pollution?
We could, of course, sense wider—
Moan at iridescent sunsets.
Listen to the starling’s song—
That chirped complexity.
Sway with cornet blasts of lilies,
Unruled, rioting nasturtium,
Impossible sparaxis palettes,
Cymbidia’s outrageous creamy pink.
Warm to purr-prone cat affection.
And, thus, spew,
Evacuate unnatural,
Anthrogeneric dross.
But consider:
That starling’s thrilling trills
Are menacing—
Declare, just so, this boundary!
Incomprehensible loveliness
Of flowers? Lewd trickery—
Luring bugs, mesmerized,
To satisfy the plants’
Mordant sexuality.
And nothing
So impairs
Cats’ affection
As withheld food.
The unspeakable blaze of sunset?
That breathless spectrum
Engendered
By deadly pollutants—
Flared glory masking
Disease,
Mortality.
Our orb, this world,
Ah me!
(3/31/10)