the actual pingpong of the abyss

in trust not
knowing how
shape will
manifest.

Looking backward
historically so
near so far
at the absolute
mastery of
Philippe Petit
dancing above
the abyss to
come the
only yet
foreshadowed
shock to the
system the
nervous anticipating
fearful system.

Looking forward
a tumid tide of dreams
rearing wall of water
fearsome blotting
the loving horizon
of oracular
potential not
yet more than
hinted at even
in trust not
knowing.

this morning
for the first time
of her own accord.

Purring.

Observe and accept
choose and act!

Hope and process got we going
going round and round
we look into we mirror
we see we battleground.

Every little thing we love
all that we despise
we see it in we faces
we see it in we eyes.

Pastures of pure plenty
privation pork and greed
we shepherd boys we sleeping
we wolves we full of need.

We voting for Obama
we voting for McCain
we whole world watching waiting
disenfranchised still again.

Still we are the winners
hallelujah jubilee
disease and starving plentitude
commitment scarcity.

We lovers lying on we bed
we dozing spent content
we kitten purring near we head
we new life innocent.

We scamper pounce we captivate
we catch we moth we mouse
we layoffs unemployment
we foreclose upon we house.

We harking back new deal new leaf
we turning turning turn
we fossil fuel we had we day
we burning baby burn.

For everything a time a place
we turning turning turn
we soldiers now we flowers gone
when will we ever learn?

We epic poem we poets all
we know we have to write
daunted we but hopeful
process through the night.

over images of
polar bears swimming
in the open ocean
hundreds of miles
from the nearest
ice lifetimes
beyond the
radius of
their endurance.

What does a father
say when his
daughter says
she doesn’t know
how people will
want to choose
to bring children
into this world?
Into a world
without polar bears.

After the tears
and the hugging
we talked.

She wondered if
polar bears could
survive at the
south pole.
I immediately
thought of the
ecological havoc
that would be
wreaked by
translocating
such a major
predator.

Then again
I’m thinking
now that the
disappearance
of such a major
predator
would wreak
havoc just
as surely.

Pick your havoc
perhaps it is
simply as simple
as that.

School children
have been locating
polar bears at
the south pole
ever since white
crayons were
invented.

The human mind
will spin its wheels
and strip its gears
arguing about this
until it is too late
never coming to
consensus.

Mean while. . .

The human heart
should just do it.