Shelves of unknown objects
A flashlight flickering, rolling across the floor
Arms and a torso turned to the wall, alone, absent yet
alarmed
The middle of the tunnel is dark, for both the beginning
and the end lay too far to declare any light
Spin four times around, and guess
What meaning exists in only the present
What world turns without a curve
What Sun
What Sol
Even the blind use bookmarks
Hold this place for me
Speak this old name
Marvel the sound of the fallen tree
Wonder that you knew
Wonder that you’ve flown a billion years
Through skies that begat skies
Great good comes from instinct
Instant decisions to flee to kill to defend to mar to
forgive
The morning will surely raise us again
Until the last night
Until the final breath before all air disappears
I remember you
From a time when you were human
And I the simple beast
We spent days in that burning forest
Nights together fearing the embers
You left me by the cooling river
You said many things I could not understand
But I listened
If mind is made of mental associations
Do the connections of recall work only in one direction
Can not the memories cause the inspiration
Or are we so locked in the relationship of cause and
effect
So held in our image of time and consequence
That we will never reverse birth
Nor bestir death
What is this longing
This need to preserve, protect, provision
Such animal fear
Such desperate ephemeral puffs of hope, courage, love
What game we must be to the creator
Who makes creators such as we
In the end the best beginnings become pairs
Like a couplet grouped unawares
