How to Return from the Knowing-Place

-

 HOW TO RETURN FROM THE KNOWING-PLACE


— circa 3:45pm


Begin by acknowledging how heavy 

the knowing you’ve been tasked to tote. 


Note how taught this tendency 

to color-code, to place in the approximate 

folder, how quick you’re found 

to spiral-bound, staple, three-ring-

bind the unaccounted-for you find 

and cram them in your bag. 


Pay attention to the tension 

in your spine and other central parts

of you, grown rigid as a hardback. 


Now here comes the hard part: 


Shrug your shoulders, the way 

you used to when you didn’t know

the answer, had nothing to say.


Feel the air-conditioning kissing

your damp t-shirt as your backpack slumps

to the floor, more than muscles

loosening as you step inside and drop

it on the mat. You know the rules:


Slip off your shoes. This is what

you’ve been waiting for. All that knowing 

won’t help you here. 


Welcome home.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Quorum Present?

-
Do We Have a  Quorum?  Well we’re present—this hangnail of the living  contingent—and then  there’s the unaccounted for who came before quite likely peering in—for all  we know—through the wood-frame windows, eager to wipe a dust-hole  with their thumbs and watch the goings-on to see if we arrive at a kind  of consensus. So to answer your question,  yes. And speaking of questions, theirs are ours and we carry the weight of them in the damp manila folders of our lives, eager to take the stand: On behalf of all of us, then, Why does it cost so much? Are we,  on this end of the bench, being  heard? And then, in a word,  what are we going to do about it? 
Read more

The Bends

-
 THE BENDS           At a certain depth the voices all thrum at the same, garbled pitch.  Both wisdom and the waiting swarm of bees call you up for air,  both wisdom and the Anglerfish draw you deeper. Do you paddle faster  from Leviathan or close your eyes and wait?  Once inside, do you stab the tender heart or caress it? There’s leagues on leagues but we’re in  out of ours and the tanks are low. You die if you come up too quick, you die  if you don’t surface soon, and at this sounding we won’t be dragged out by the light  of the moon. As to good news, t he returned ship sloshes vacant  at port while the wreck is found  at rest on solid ground, home now  to an ecosystem riddled with life.
Read more

Walker County Council Meeting: March 3rd

-
  Walker County Council Meeting: March 3rd — first Thursday of every month The quorum hobbles through the hobbled door of the civic center, as if being touched by God in the hip socket were requisite for living  here. Commissioner Teems bestows the blessing followed by the minutes, then opens the floor for public comment. The proposed rock quarry in Rock Spring is of chief concern, the chief financial officer proffering the neighborly promise to open the floor just above the water line,  which is just more lies—per Vince McGill  off Five Points Spur, down by the Helicopter Park— to obtain the land and begin drilling well below that, contaminating the ground- water. Up bubbles a low murmur, then a spill over  of comments regarding the recent infestation  of litterbugs in Lafayette, the merit of another bite on tax dollars for the county’s new Dodge Ram,  a shout-out for such a damn successful Desert Storm  memorial. No decisions are made,  a...
Read more