Centerbeam
word walk
over the gulf
of nothing said

cantilevered
by sunrays bent
always a little
too much to ignore

so we assemble
the stones
whoever we are

stone stone stone
no book is our law

rejoice!

It all remains to be said,
needle and thread,
bare arm and smile,

simchas the Jews say,
celebrate that.

2.
There is a vegetable garden near,
but not much ripe yet in it,
crisp kale at your service
even in the snow, but still
you can walk there, treading
lightly on the future,
the future,
the thing we dare to call
the dirt beneath our feet.

3.
So often the machine
seems to know
what I am thinking.
Out stream the words,
topple stone on stone
till much has been spoken
but little said–
some things it is not wise to say.

4.
Vaccine at last.
Woman with the needle,
even her mask can’t hide her smile,
right arm or left she asks
I answer and the point
goes painlessly in,
hydrate, hydrate she says
so off I go with my wife
who gave me the whole ocean.

5.
See what I mean about gulfs and silences?
Come dance with me a waltz of guesses,
a czardas of near misses–
we will never get
all the way there
that’s what it means
to dance, to go on.

6.
Polyverse seems just perverse,
look what we’ve done with the one we have…
universe must mean a single verse,
one line of a poem that never ends.
Read your line deeply
then shout it out.
We always need more weather.

7.
Roof I mean,
roof may be root,

build from the roof down,
the crest knows
all that comes below

as from the sky
we maybe came.

5 March 2021