From the heart of the night
the moon appeared, or a small
crescent of it, coy this night
as she is on a regular basis.
She hinted at her fullness,
but we knew that was still
days off, the moon kept
to a rigid schedule always.
But her reticence this night
invited the stars to take
the stage, some we rarely see
whether hiding in clouds
or obscured by the moon’s
radiance, and the stars
seem pleased for this brief
moment on the celestial stage.
Technology has effectively
destroyed the intimate
dinner parties that once
were the core of a social life.
You fretted over whether
the souffle would collapse,
if the wine was chilled
to the right temperature,
if the entree was back timed
sufficiently to allow time
for the hors d’oeuvres
and if the guests would
arrive at the scheduled time.
Now it is a fear that Grubhub
or Doordash will be late,
that you must remember
to hide the packaging from
the heat and serve appetizers
and if it will be nice enough
to eat outside, or if you will
need to check vaccination cards.
In the interstitial moment
between birth and death
a universe comes into existence,
something that never before existed
and existed always, new
and well-known, unseen
and visible for eternity.
Measure it well
for it is incapable of measurement,
and ends without warning
and precisely on schedule.
In the momentary breath
that marks the transit,
we proceed nowhere
and cannot return to where we began.
Reprised from March 27, 2016
He divided time into neat,
well organized segments, each
precisely the equivalent of each other,
some the perfect sum of lessers.
This is how it should be and must be
he thought, and it made things
so much easier for him.
He knew when to arrive, and
always knew precisely what
time it was and would be.
He couldn’t understand why
others couldn’t seem to arrive
on his schedule, never mind
that they had divided time
into neat segments, each
precisely the equivalent of each other
and none the equivalent of
his tidy temporal order.
They arrive
ones and twos
accrete
dissolve
reform, swell
the cacophony grows
takes on a joyousness
as they ebb and flow;
the food disappears
the wine
the laughter
draws you in
and you want
only to circulate
but how
with shifting
nuclei
and then
the scheduled end
and hours later
the last slips away
and the space
falls silent
still echoing
what went before.
There is a great deal left
to be said, and we assume
more than enough time
for the task, but
the ferryman hews
to his own schedule
and our plans, intentions,
desires are beyond
his knowledge or caring.
It is best to say
what you need before
recalling that
silence is eternal.
an old writer and his words 