Monday (Anti) Mantra. Always. Always this…

melon-light

how you can never reach it,
no matter how hard you try,
walking as fast as you can,
but getting nowhere,
arms and legs pumping,
sweat drizzling in rivulets;
each year, a little slower,
more creaks and aches, less breath.
Ah, but these soft nights,
air like a warm bath,
the dusky wings of bats careening crazily overhead,
and you’d think the road goes on forever.
Apollinaire wrote, “What isn’t given to love is so much wasted,”
and I wonder what I haven’t given yet.
A thin comma moon rises orange,
a skinny slice of melon,
so delicious I could drown in its sweetness.
Or eat the whole thing, down to the rind.
Always, this hunger for more.

Barbara Crooker, How the Trees on Summer Nights Turn Into A Dark River


Notes:


13 thoughts on “Monday (Anti) Mantra. Always. Always this…”

  1. The hunger for life…yes; the momentary twinges of ‘want’ that change with time and perspective – perhaps like the difference between sustenance and a Big Mac.

  2. I loved this. The frenzy, and then that moment of slowing, slowing, stop. Yes, we are always hungry AND so blind to what feeds us.

  3. “…I wonder what I haven’t given yet.” There’s always room to be kinder, gentler, more understanding, less judgmental. My takeaway, my reminder…

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