There’s this thing around us
We’ll call it the world.
In the world events are happening.
We’ll call them current.
The currents swell and wash
A path to the future.
We control current events.
We add our voice to the torrent.
We build the future.
I don’t recognize the frightened drowning bee until the cup hits my lips. I instantly spit it out, and it slinks off, out of sight somewhere, presumably to die without causing me any more discomfort. Righteous guy like that, dying the way it had lived, in kindness and duty.
He presented himself as
Virginia Justice, American,
Red, White, and Blue.
The Monk asked if he’d been in government in his day.
“I ain’t ever been involved in government.”
The Monk checked the blowhard, shoving him aside.
small so small
infinitely small
non-existent
so small I don’t exist
even within my own species
my own hemisphere
or nation or region
Chastisement comes to us from the Greek,
just kidding it’s from Old French,
and before that Latin.
And you can follow it back to PIE and beyond—
To the first poet to utter a sound, and beyond—
From since there’s been vocal cords,
or rattles,
or hairy legs,
there has been chastisement,
and poets do it the best.
