That Which Moves
by Carmine Giordano
Anything can happen anytime.
Everything singular
has its own momentum
goes its own way
undeliberate, random, free.
God's first breath
banged everything that's thing
to being
spat it out without form
or fixed intent,
matter in vortices
clashing with anti-matter,
expanding and cohering.
So be ready, Marcus Lollius,
to grow and crash,
to burn and turn.
Be ready for sunrise twists,
comet falls.
Be certain of many deaths,
of many resurrections -
you, too, go your own way.
Everything singular
has its own momentum
goes its own way
undeliberate, random, free.
God's first breath
banged everything that's thing
to being
spat it out without form
or fixed intent,
matter in vortices
clashing with anti-matter,
expanding and cohering.
So be ready, Marcus Lollius,
to grow and crash,
to burn and turn.
Be ready for sunrise twists,
comet falls.
Be certain of many deaths,
of many resurrections -
you, too, go your own way.
* * *
by Carmine Giordano
The body animal is old
but the spirit doesn’t know
still wants to jump
like the old dog
with his front paws
scraping on the old sofa
his back legs in a shuffle
bracing and buckling
on the frayed carpet
wants back
to his accustomed place
his accustomed pace
the long run
in the wide meadow
the wild path opening
through lupine and daisies
the sky at its deepest blue -
and the sun, the sun!
* * *
Entropy
byCarmine Giordano
There’s always some kind of pain
in the body back or in the body shoulders
or in the knees or finger joints
or wherever the bones hinge themselves.
It’s part of growing old they say
the general stealth of everyday decay.
You just can’t keep using a thing
and not expect it would gradually wear away
like the frayed old cotton dog underneath the stair
that favorite shirt with the threadbare collar
those nice walking shoes with the worn down heels
those strands of hair combed thin across your head
the necessary love you breathe in night and day -
they say that even the unending kindness of the sun
will collapse to nebula one day.