She Leaves

Roots reaching in Thirst 

She acted-spontaneous

Limbs longing for light.

Image of 'Bamboo Canopy' via Wikimedia Commons October 19, 2015 in Public Domain. 

Storm chasers

Pulled one over on our Mother

Nature-When we 'wise ones'

learned how to chart               and predict, guess and check

her moods                               and storms associated with wrath

and names,                              personalities,

alphabetically                          with indexes and eyes.

We behold

color coded paths

where weather may walk-

sirens and alerts follow us

In spite of-direction.

Now that is not good enough             -anymore.

Without footage,                     there-ness, like live streams

in microwaves, invisible proof for the eyes-

It never happened that way.

Painting by Karl Bryullov, 'View of Fort Picu on the island of Madeira' c. 1849-50, [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Lesson 1: Nature and the Soupman

Travel back to your first lesson
taught by Mother Nature.
When you learned
your parents were not the only
nor the best
teachers
about life.

We went camping,
my parents, their friends, Hercules-the dog.
We'd go to the Russian River
where there were no campsites-
you sight your spot and camp-
if you like.

They would drink and fish,
and drink like fish,
and more-it was the eighties.
Their friend, 

a man called Kevin Soupman
was fishing near me
when he caught a rainbow
trout.

He held it across both his hands,
it was shiny, slimy and squirmy-

the things kids like.
Moments later,
he said he had something for me.
He told me to hold out the palm
of my hand.
I did, eagerly.

In it,
he placed a crimson pebble.
It rolled a moment
as I tried to see it more closely
then it settled in the evening sun-
(un)still

throbbing and beating its inner drum.
Thus,

Nature and the Soupman
taught me
all I needed to know
about heartlessness.


Image By Ken Hammond / USDACornischong at lb.wikipedia [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons.