Leaving my rest to awaken
and see what will become
of us all.

Now, I could remain asleep and be
bewildered and bothered by it all
until my own departure

but the leaves are coming up
from the messy dirt and they
express an imperative:

you need to stay and see
whether anyone matters. So I stay
and watch and the birds change,

the weather changes, everything
in fact mutates and shifts back
to where it used to be

before the dreadful winter.
I’m not the same yet I am
similar, waiting for something

or anything different to happen.
Luminous clouds, the same yet different;
cruel men and women, the same

yet different. Still, I am
changed somewhat: like chewing
on tinfoil; like facing up to pain

unbearable and yet
bearing up to it as it bears down
like a wave on the sand.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
onward,
T