Poem: “Continuing Education”

I don’t know about your world,

but in mine, as currently arranged,

there is always something to be done

–

For instance, peace 

In the Middle East or mop

the kitchen floor or prayer

–

the first highly improbable

the second indefinitely delayable

the third imponderable

–

I don’t know about you,

but I devote big chunks 

of worry-time to the impossible

–

delayable and imponderable.

That’s why you find me lying 

in the hammock this morning

–

being schooled by chickadees

as they flit about in their flighty

elegant and achievable task

–

just being alive

–

“Continuing Education” from Odyssey (Powder Horn Press, 2014). Copyright © by Charles H. Harper. Reprinted with permission of the author.