the new science

time shifts
it's hard to believe
continents drift
is this
where we're going?

are the Florida keys
really to be
consumed by snow,
Haiti, by gold?

the world moves
into the end of the
beginning;
what we once knew for certain
we can no longer accept;
the new science
is hard to believe --
can it really add up
to happiness?

the material world
an illusion
human life
obsolete

we live now
in love alone
and everyone is equally wealthy
with absolutely nothing

behind every closed door

gravel fills my mouth;
I bide in the great northern lights
of my heart of hearts.

talk of me
is cheap these days;
those who attended my funeral
put on a good show,
but they can't keep from backbiting
in private.

that's alright; I bless them all
from this place of unimaginably sweet light
and ethereal vision
where we breathe wisdom
and spend our days handing out
fountains of love to each other.

I forgive them;
I was a bastard, after all.

and what they're doing is nothing
I didn't do,
with every death,
behind every closed door.

the soft-blue of unlearning

a mobile, overhead, dangles;
a solar system of
soft blue plastic
commanding a trail of angels,
warding off danger,
blessing the head of a small child
with starshine and mercy --

a brother's sling, shot hard and wild,
the rock diverted by the rotating toy...

helpless as a baby,
or so the saying goes,
helpless? -- perhaps and maybe,
but this child seems to know
visions of things sublime,
and a magic in every wonder,

though "well-meaning" people and time
will tear this heaven asunder.