“Arcadia”
We go now then, the five of us
Across the path stretched out across the green plain
Like a quilt-work blanket spread out for a picnic
We go now, through skies of gulls, and warm summer gusts
And quiet lusts
Past the shrill timbre of cellphones, and haptic feedback
And past team meetings, and Lunch and Learns; In pursuit
Of Serene Intent
With a question of why can’t you Dad, why can’t you Mom take
Time, and time to take now
We go now, we take now, we take now
Out in the big sky that can swallow you whole
We listen to the loud silence with our soul
With our chests full of light, beaming in
cheer and laughter we walk along the path,
with grit and mud, the baby chirps and birds
chirp, and wide-eyed and gleaming,
wonder twirls in her eyes like an
ever-changing kaleidoscope
Being newly created in each blink,
a folding beauty upon itself
And upon itself, dazzling and free
as neurons fire in synchronicity weaving
great webs of delight, I watch the delight and
in a moment, upon a moment
I am young again seeing it again and
a twinkling universe rises in my watery eye,
my hand holding hers as she looks up
To me
“Bird Song, Daddy!”
The Sun bakes us like shriveled dates
ripe with spirit and candy flesh
Our sandals scruff across the path in
metered cacophony like John Cage
Playing the beach path in discordant
swishes and tweaks, bonks, and bleeps
Up the hill, on the left a break in the path
yields an archaic sign with symbology that
Would make the Illuminati blush,
warnings of this and that but harkening to
Respect this fragile world, this fragile minute
with sweat running down our backs
And our children talking about
little hopes of dancing waves,
this chrysalis in time
Becoming a memory in their wide minds,
unfolding iridescent wings to stiffen in the open air
And give way to a flight on wind buffets
to dance merrily along future horizons
On the beach, bones of dead trees,
Bleached and dyed, their skeletal fingers
Playing in the surf, a Rhapsody in Blue
Flocks of gulls, sinuous and lithe,
float down the coast, patterns of
Organic energy (Wu Li) pulsing in tune to the
sky, moon, and earth
With the swaying fronds of the palmetto trees,
perfectly in unison, from the Conductor’s
Unseen hand