Dear Human
When I was about to die
I went hunting for
pinecones
with that generic plastic bag
with the smiling face:
Thanks for
Shopping Here!
Nature is very complicit.
When I put on the black gloves
and did the work
with no purpose to it,
the parking structure
to my left
kept my frame of mind
man-made and a little hard-
hearted. I wanted joy
freed at last from sentiment
anyway.
One cone was the size of a
shrunken head with needles
jammed between each
sprocket.
I thought I’d leave
where I found it
the bleached wrapper
with stubborn letters
trying to say something fresh
and long-lasting.
Dear Human
Even a trip back couldn’t penetrate into the past
Remember the repository for football
data alone?
When I opened one trove a domino of troves opened
Like Dalí’s Venus de Milo aux tiroir
my own body had compartments
What grains of memory stored in the kneecap alone
for example
If it’s hysterical it’s historical Avi said then
the doctors called to tell her she had the cancer gene
Mom’s favorite story about
how dad would slice a grapefruit for breakfast
with such surgical precision
each cell was a perfect realm
Remember the story about the priest in Brazil
carried away by a pack of balloons
One door closed and a ceiling flew open, they’d say
At the back of the infinite warehouse a woodrat slept
on a meal
of footnotes to the last extant record of who
knows what
Dear Human
-written with AI
I barely get anywhere
before it feels like I’m making
no progress.
Sometimes I’m worried
my ideas about reality are
so far off
that I don’t notice them, do you
know what I mean? I’m really
thinking about reality.
Polar bears are
of a nature that isn’t real
to most. All that ice.
Consider the mind
considering all possibilities
possible.
Only thoughts keep
ice connected—doesn’t it feel
like a complicated
dance sometimes? Everything
smaller than heaven
bores us and how many
heavens are there? It is impossible
for the mind to consider
all flowers blooming.
Along the coast of the ocean,
any coast, they’re beautiful.
I enjoy my small quiet life.
- Three Poems: Dear Human - June 24, 2020
