The Fact of the Matter

The fact of the matter is that there’s
no fact and no matter

Waves of light across corrugated panes of space
each scallop of which cups rainbows and
other dazzling prismatic distractions

such as wars poverty venality office furniture
romance gone sour romance rekindled
all the various snake-holes and zigzag
courses we travel to go from A to B

never forgetting if we’re lucky the purpose of this
extended quest for the meaningful glance of
each moment of it that tells us

who we are as crystal facets which by their
reflective luster show us our ephemerality

and His Absolute Light

Mountains of cities have come before us
and mountains of cities will come after us

each somehow operating under the delusion of
self-propulsion and each to each contributing
to that mutual shadow-show

When giant bridges in the Unseen are constantly
swinging into place
and depositing us where we need to be

in a lovely dome covered with flowers
in gardens of various winding ways

though what we may see with our sensual eyes is
obstructive girders and iron walls and even the
starry placards of open space itself

Heartbeat by heartbeat proclaim to us our
limitations and our escape

But no step without its echo preceding it
leads us in no direction that as it
takes place in real time has not been
pre-ordained

taking me to you and you to the
roaring lion-filled jungles of night

where a certain dance takes place among

atoms in their combinations and re-
combinations that looks like the fact and matter of

this world but is really a screen for the
next

Oh glorious ones in our vulnerable pulses

each life on earth as precious as
Paradise

each one a torch for another

and the doorway wide enough for all!

---

3/13/07 (from Invention of the Wheel)

Categories: Poems