Hair

Because hair grows,
An entire population of villagers
Comes and goes though nobody knows;
They work in the city salons,
Washing our hair on and on.

Because hair turns white,
An entire population of chemicals
Mixes and flows in colorful shows
After large funds are expended
Though God never intended.

Because hair falls out,
An entire population of rabbits
Shrinks and grows and suffers the blows
Of experiments in stages
In a thousand metal cages.

What befell the rabbits taken from their fields;
What befell the chemicals in their toxic yields;
What befell the villagers in the salons they built
No one could predict, though we all got the bill.

For as sure as hair grows,
We are prisoners of our nature
In a world where our stature
Turns on hair styles and clothes.

I Don't Know

Is the science of the world
Compatible with
Our human experience?
I don't know.

Is the mind
Different from
The brain?
I don't know.

Is there
A thing called
Objective truth?
I don't know.

Is there an ultimate
Reality, and can we
Know it?
I don't know.

How many angels
Can dance
On a dying red rose?
I don't know.

Can you count
Your lovers
On you fingers and toes?
I don't know.

Can you tell me
A secret
That nobody knows?
I don't know.

Do you know
What becomes
Of a child as he grows?
I don't know.

Do your answers
Depend on where
The wind blows?
I don't know.

Who knows?

Summer

The dragonfly
Grasps the meaning -
To sample the meadow,
Flitting here and there,
Among the tall grass

While the sun shines brightly
And the clouds roll by
Across a summer sky
That forever will be -
But not for you and not for me.

Do you remember when as kings
Of our backyards we traced
Our trajectory?
You’d be an astronaut,
Or a pirate.
I’d be a lawyer,
Or the President.

No one can know the trajectory
Of the dragonfly in the meadow,
Where once we sat
With our beer and wine.

Now, it is true that sorrow
Fades in the wind of time.
But that summer meadow
Is never as bright
Since the only eyes to see
Are mine.

Missing

On that warm morning
No one noticed much.
But by the hot noontime,
Someone noticed:

The library was not there.
It had been moved.

By mid afternoon
It was discovered
That the park was gone.

The museum was missing,
And the meeting hall,
And the stadium.

Only the school remained.
But it was closed for renovation;
Its roof collapsed.

By sunset the townspeople
Had shuttered themselves
In their living rooms;
The week-long premier
Of reality shows was here.

By evening the blindness
Spread through the town.
Eyes would not meet each other
As heads hung, absently, down.

At night: the howls of dogs,
Louder than the squeals
Of children.

Overhead, the stars wheeled -
The only places left
For thieves to steal.

The Fortune Teller

I'm sorry.
I don't believe
That what you do is true.

That is what
I told the Fortune Teller
On a warm city night
As she stood upon the corner
In the shadow of the lights.

But it is true - a truth
As strange as it is old;
You will believe
If you are told.

Listen. She said:

You are the Unbeliever,
Destroyer of Worlds.
With your Mind of Doubt,
Dragons you will slay,
Old ghosts rout out.

With doubt clear as day,
Charlatans you'll banish.
Priests here will not stay
And mysteries will vanish.

But beware the magic of negation.
In the fusty superstition
Lies the bedrock of our nation.

Though you lead the modern man,
An army of numbers and scales,
You will find that all your plans
Lack the passion of mythic tales.

So do not presume to find me
Alone in the street forlorn,
For my heart mirrors the stars -
The harbor of love
Before Mind was born.