FRESH AIR

What if you were so moved

by the movie you just saw

that you channeled Terry Gross

as you left the theater

and asked the stranger next to you:

Why did you choose to see 

this film and not another today?

Did it make you remember your life

and how you’ve been broken

and how you came to be healed again?

Whatever provoked you to wear

rainbow-colored spandex in public?

Does the name of your dog sweeten your day?

Was your son promoted this week and were you proud?

What makes a crime a crime?

Where are you headed now?

 for a drink, across a bridge, into a fog,

or to an orphanage in your mind?

Do you know where you’re going?

Are you a tourist or a traveler?

The film made you curious,

made you want to interview

each and every by-stander

about their deepest desire,

so strangers became less strange

and humanity became more human.

You want your questions to take you,

without censorship or any hesitation,

into the magic,

into the mystery,

into the grand tour of life.

You want to know your brothers

and sisters of the world

in all their colors and complexity.

You want to peel back the layers

of the living and see there is

a beating heart inside.

You want to believe that trust

is not a nonsense song

with lyrics like Semolina pilchard

but is full of hidden anthems

and the trill of a high-pitched horn

and a singing satellite.

If you actually had these conversations

with strangers in public places

then maybe you could leave

whatever movie you were just in,

step into a November night,

and really breath the outside air, 

the fresh air, like a gratitude 

that fills the lungs and life

with all that’s needed: love.

THE MIX

Source after source,

layer upon layer,

are woven into one track.

We call this density music.

Sometimes, well-intentioned engineers

lost in the act of bringing

so many disparate elements

together in one place

mistake distortion for harmonics,

merger for marriage.

There is no fixing a mix like this

when every sound

is wedded to every other sound

and is overwrought

and can’t be uncoupled.

The only thing to do is to start over,

to scrub the tracks clean

and return to the source material,

to the native sounds

before they were married,

before their essence

got lost in the mix.

SHRINES

Build them 

everywhere 

and with 

anything you can.

With nursing bras,

life vests,

even lighthouses.

From conversations

had from middle seats,

from fugitive oceans,

or for the sake

of the sudden arrival

of a hospice bed.

Make them from

the playa of life

to remember

what’s been lost

and the journeys 

dutifully taken.

Your green fuse

will blossom 

and make room

for more life 

when you do.

Be like the Asian moth

that causes the elephant

to cry and then feasts

upon its faithful tears,

like a babe
at its mother's breast.

TOUCHING TARANTULAS

A terrarium

called Life

overrun with

tarantulas.

This is what we see

when we put

paralysis between

us and the glass room.

Why not

chunk fear down

into nibby bits

we manage

a piece at a time.

The distance between

us and our phobias

disappears if we do,

along with our 

fear of fear.

When it does

maybe then we’ll venture

behind the glass,

march into the room,

and let the little beasties

cover us

from head to toe

and not care.