Sonder
My window is my own, no one else’s
Each of us in a glass case for others to watch.
Study my life. Study my veil of individuality,
that false promise that we are divided by chance,
and circumstance.
Ponder our place, this neverending sonder,
life divided against itself, windows debarring connection.
Each carrying a first-person view, with “I” as the leading character,
“U” as a consequence, and “We” as an afterthought.
Mourn the past, embrace the unknown,
dual against the self-portrait of the world, between noble and parasite,
enemy of the Earth, ally of the clouds, the evolution towards no-return.
We are everywhere.
Windows containing lives, false promises of security in this life out of balance.
Koyaanisqatsi. Smoke the fog and see what you find building in your lungs: another’s breath,
the steam rising from Earth’s crevice, a child it could no longer protect.
Peer the worker, who climbs through the dust.
Watch me through my window.
See the unknowing, and scorn my inaction.
Scorn all inaction, as the artificial throws the balance of our world,Koyaanisqatsi.
Forty-One
You had been talking about life.
The space between words,
Those articulated rests,
As if seeing the world in a coat of resin, another shade.
You had been discussing life.
Defeated petals, cascading on their foundational bloom,
The vine traveling downward into Earth
As if reaching for the other side of things.
We had been analyzing meaning.
Those stolen glances,
and encrypted truths
The cadence of thought, soft repeated whispers like a determined creek
We were seeing hope
Personified in the unknown,
Alluded to in the implied,
Where rhyme and reason sing in harmony
Well traveled, now learned, we stopped our inquiries
Sank into comfort, that misheard assurance
Where curiosity is domesticated, courage curbed
May discussions abound
Far after ours
Where life, meaning, and hope bring darkness to light
And sepia apathy is turned to lush care