THE EYE AND THE GARDEN

There’s an eye the size of a pin in a
garden the size of the universe

and a garden the size of a pin
in an eye the size of the universe

and they’re wrapped in a wind of no apparent size or
shape that has planets turning slowly inside its
amorphous sphere

and a voice wrapped around the whole of it so
sweet honey drips as if in Springtime from its
melodious words and swallows fly between their
floating honey-strands

and it is all as I’ve said though I’m not
here to say it

and a door opens as another door closes

and the voice on the other side O Allah

flows like an ocean around everything at once and
drowns it in magnitude and meaning

and holds it aloft to the light in its uplifting tides

11/13/2002 (from Through Rose Colored Glasses, in preparation)

THERE’S NO COMFORT IN THIS WORLD

“There’s no comfort in this world”
says the bear to the rabbit cornered by the
fox caught in the
cross-hairs of a Remington semi-automatic

“The ripe walnut spends more breaths on grief”
says the rabbit without breaking a sweat

“Large waters large waters large waters”
says the fox licking his lips

“I’ve got him!”
says the rifleman as the aneurysm starts its attack from a
blood clot in his leg

“Why do fat people laugh more than skinny people?”
says the aneurysm as a laser beam from
God’s Throne stops it in its tracks

The rifleman thinks of his mother and her
deathbed wish and the tears in her eyes
and her last diary entry
and drops his gun

The fox gets distracted by a butterfly and lopes off on the
trail of a pungent odor of fresh pheasant
though it’s all in his mind

The rabbit twitches pink nose and white ears
puts paws back on earth and hops off
tail wiggling looking for lunch

The bear glances around for a second
then calls after the rabbit as it
disappears into the brush

“The ice-gates of Mercy melt open in the heart of the moment”
and studies his snout in the puddle rain made on the ground
before shambling off into the woods

his stomach growling

            9/24/2002 (from Through Rose Colored Glasses)