One clove of garlic, chopped,
sautéed in olive oil,
a handful of spinach leaves
steamed, rice noodles boiled.
An Arctic freeze
settles on the city
too dry for snow,
the ground frozen and stiff.
A squirrel walks the top
of the fence toward the firs
looking for something tasty,
finding little.
Place setting for one
at the table, a vase of roses
flown in from Chile,
dark now at every window.
FEWalls
(“I found within me an invincible summer.” Albert Camus )
You have wasted your time,
messed up,
squandered your money.
You have
destroyed your health,
& you bristle with blame and resentment.
Listen. You have the courage.
to keep living
no matter what.
Remember, a tree
planted by the rivers of water
shall not wither.
FEWalls
The newborn, screaming, red-faced,
held by his feet, upside-down,
slapped, pinched into that first
cry, his first breath angry, the mother
unconscious, gutted on the table, her leg
broken, her arm broken, hauled in 9-months
pregnant, shrapnel in her belly,
the house blown to smithereens around her.
All that death. The baby’s
heart silent, the dust, the rubble,
the bombs, almost the last
doctor in ancient Aleppo
saying to a nurse,
“Hand me the scalpel.”
FEWalls
Crowned
“king of the gods” in high school,
caped with scepter in hand, a gentle smile,
the basketball star in our tiny world,
at 21, a lieutenant in Vietnam.
Bombs
fell on the green villages
perimeters strafed and over-run
maimed bodies,
youth,
sanity,
all sacked up together like shades of rice
before the boiling pot.
Carved
your name
on marble,
held in place
by those who died before
and after you,
carved on black
marble reflecting back the twisted mouths
holding grief high and tight,
hands offering medals,
roses,
poems
to names on a wailing wall.
FEWalls
If this octopus escapes an open tank,
look carefully around, then worry.
It can scuttle over land.
Longer than a car,
it squeezes through an orange-size
hole. The beak? In its crotch or armpit,
take your pick. Ignore the venom
that dissolves flesh. Stronger than
a body-builder. Truly its suckers, shape,
ink, brain: Unique. Not a vertebrate.
Breathes water!
If you see it,
vibrate in your boots,
then scoot.
FEWalls April 8, 2016
Source: Sy Montgomery Soul of an Octopus
A Long Perspective 