THE INCONSEQUENTIAL

there is no 

red wheel

barrow, white 

chickens or rain 

water in 

this image

and yet 

so much 

depends upon 

the speed 

of a slug:

the orange 

of the withered 

poppy petal, 

the ominous 

shadow of 

the plant the petal 

fell from,

and the stymied 

stance of the three 

sad pebbles.

had I not 

slowed down enough 

to see this 

inconsequential scene 

of a tiny 

creature in transit 

slithering its slick 

evaporating trail

across 

the vast terrain

of a flagstone 

slab, I might not 

have noticed 

how meticulous 

nature is 

in the way

it arranges 

threshold moments 

everywhere, all the time,

for all its kin

and more-than-human kind.

nor would I have

remembered

William Carlos 

William’s simple, 

yet revolutionary 

poem,

and how it has 

influenced me 

more than 

I ever knew:

how the glaze 

in it taught me 

to see the beauty 

and bravery 

in the everyday 

and in 

every 

living thing.