The sky in the distance is yellow
because it is saturated
with the living dust
that is emitted by trees,
who I happen to notice
are standing quite silent
on the matter
of this atmospheric discoloration,
as if you can do a thing
little-by-little and it doesn’t count.
But I see you can take a thing too far.
Fresh from my coursework
on the dangers of coffee dust
and grain silos,
I note that with one
ill-timed lightning strike,
an entire arboreal corridor
would detonate.
The heat will be tremendous
albeit of very short duration.
Most of the birds will escape
by surfing on a flying carpet of spreading heat.
The worms near the surface
will be translucent during the flash,
but unharmed, at least initially,
while the deeper ones
will remain cool as cucumbers,
burrowing and chundering away.
There will be crackles and pops,
sparks that zip in loop-to-loops,
incendiary questions begged,
resin and tree bark flying at close to the speed of sound,
acoustic anomalies that sound like trains,
then lots of helicopters. Cameras.
Footage of a bear running west,
difficult to keep in the frame.
A human survivor will crawl out from
a blanket of aluminum foil to smile and wave.
The bees will buzz and swarm,
and agree with the butterflies:
even a forest can have a misfire
of apoptosis.
I sneezed, shaking myself
from this little reverie.
What do you see, Hafiz?
Not that, he replied.
But what do you say we run the wipers
a time or two?
And give your mind a little rest.
Embracing Forever 
I adore the idea on one little thought turning into a big maelstrom, an inferno….but distracted daydreaming while driving isn’t always good…unless of course you’re locked into traffic with Hafiz riding shotgun…..then dream away my young man, dream on. What a fun post…a million thoughts in the blink of an eye. Awesome!
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Hi Kim,
Once again you are riding right alongside, seeing this scene unfold with me. Hafiz is good at riding shotgun. He makes sure we don’t push too hard, or set unrealistic goals… We stop and smell a lot of nature. We are, in fact, quite a sight. Ha! A million thoughts in the blink of an eye. That is humanity today…
Peace
Michael
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You’ve been hiding under a bushelll again, or off on a grand adventure, I think the adventure most of all, hope all is well, miss your regular posts but I can live with once a week, I take the joy that I can get, it sustains till the next adventure😀 Hafiz is a crafty one, but you know that, I imagine you two somedays riding a hot air balloon, swooping down over a carnival and swiping some cotton candy to buoy back up into the clouds again…yes, you’re magic that way….thank you, it’s made my night even more special…and I thought hubbys salmon was the tops tonight, so much more goodness heaped on. Life is beautiful and we are indeed truly blessed….now how’s the book coming? I’m already on my fourth round of the other….sigh…haha…all in good time my friend, peace and joyous days, Kim💜😊
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Hi Kim,
It has in truth, been an intense few weeks. But I certainly don’t mean to hide and often wish I could stretch the day a bit more to be where friends such as you are playing in Love’s embrace. I will send you a little something to tide you over… 🙂 I have been working on some short stories lately, which is really challenging for me, but fun, too.
You’re magical as well. We’re making this magic together, we are. All of us. Whether we know it, like it or not, appreciate it or understand it. We are present in a magnificent play of experience…
Stand by my friend…
Peace
Michael
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Well now I am just too excited. Short stories, wow, for some reason I’m thinking you would be amazing at that. I look forward to seeing the magic you’ve churned up, I’m glad you’ve been keeping busy, relaxing is nice for a while but I find at pretending retirement, I need the structure or go crazy….I still get writing done but find any excuse to go out to play😊. Not that that’s a bad thing. Happy Tuesday my sweet friend, hi Hafiz😃 and write on, write on in joy.
Peace and love
Kim
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I hope no animals were harmed in the making of this mental firestorm! 🙂 Another interesting trip around the galaxy with you and Hafiz. Thanks for the elucidation Michael.
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Hello Brad,
I am not sure what, if anything, I have elucidated. But it was fun, anyway! I can get wrapped around the axle about things, and it’s good to take a deep breath. Step back. Smell the coffee. Get a little cosmic recalibration once in a while… Glad you enjoyed it!
Much Love
Michael
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To soothing cosmic calibrations!
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still holding on
to my seat, Michael
thinking
that for some
of us
they can’t make
the driver
1less car available
soon enough 🙂
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Ha! I’m with you, David. There are certainly some people who would truly benefit from driverless cars. I’m thinking of some seniors, people with muscular and coordination challenges, etc. It would be a revolution for them… It is kind of amazing to contemplate. On the other hand, part of me thinks there is the gap of human-to-human contact to bridge also, and that technology can continue to widen those gaps. It is all, perhaps, a matter of how we use it. Like this!
Peace
Michael
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Such rides can be illuminating and thought-provoking, Michael. Happy to buckle in and consider translucent worms along the way. Reminds me a bit of Ruiz’s discussion of “mitote.” As for running the wipers, why clear the view when it may yield even more Timothy Leary? 🙂
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Hi Eric,
I had to look up that mitote, but it seems very apropos based on what I found and quickly read. Sometimes our thoughts do take us away on fool’s errands… I think at times they can take us to some pretty neat places, though, too– drug induced or not. Inspiration seems to come when my mind “loosens up” like that sometimes. I wonder about things like Tesla and his vision of the electric motor in the clouds, or the dreaming by Watson of the double helix. A certain plasticity of thought that comes with dreaming– day-dreaming or night-dreaming– seems to make room for this…
Peace
Michael
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Fun poem, Michael, so visual with that tree dust and explosions, it makes me think of Dr. Seuss. (Not That At All!!!, someone will say 🙂 )
Be gentle to your playful spirit.
Kristina
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Hi Kristina,
Thank you! It is interesting it reminded you of Dr. Seuss, and I cannot say why, but I know the mind does some strange things. That’s what this piece is all about, in a way! Thank you for the kind words. You are spot on with what is needed, my friend.
Peace to you,
Michael
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*Duly noted . . . resting silently* 😉
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Sharing the silence with you, my friend. 🙂
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Some sort of inner explosion is happening… Love Barbara x
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Yes, indeed, Barbara. Some creative outburst. A change of mental scenery. It was really a microcosm of how I felt– kind of wrapped up in thought and remote from myself… It is good to laugh at these things, I feel!
Much Love
Michael
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I love how this ends. With humor by Hafiz. I need him to tell me the same thing. Wild, bucking bronco mind!
xxellen
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Thank you, Ellen! Yes that wild mind, running off on all its many tangents! Unextinguishable. Indecipherable. Very full of supposition and hearsay! Hafiz has a nice way of bringing it back down to the present… 🙂
Peace
Michael
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It is funny, the places our minds can take us. I know I can go off on tangents and come back and find myself a little lost. Your mind, though, wow! I wonder what it would be like to be you for a minute. All that creative energy and heart. What a great team you and Hafiz make. Sometimes I really need someone to tell me to run the wipers once in a while.
I love how you called that huge world of thought a “little reverie.” Haha!
Sorry for such a late reply. I have been off line for about a week.
Love,
Mary
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Hi Mary,
I think we all need to be told to run the wipers once in a while! Glad you are back and so nice to read your voice… 🙂
Yes, our minds can invent whole kingdoms not quite grounded on “reality”, whatever that is. Please don’t ask. Ha! It is fun getting a second opinion from Hafiz on what’s really going on. It usually helps…
Peace and Love
Michael
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“Not that at all.”
Oooh, I really love that. While the contents of my head may not echo the contents of your poem, Hafiz probably has no idea what I am thinking – else, he’d have the same thoughts at least for a truti (an Indian division of time; it’s 3,240,000ths of a second)? The possibilities and topics for thoughts are endless or finite? Who knows? Who cares? Happy Summer and soon to be solstice! Be safe, hydrated, happy.
Lovely poem, Michael. As per usual, makes the day feel lighter.
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Hi Ka!
Happy solstice to you, too. Enjoying a nice spritzer here. Staying hydrated. Reflecting on all that might be contained in the space of the truti– like an entire life cycle of a universe perhaps! What a reverie…! I’m pretty sure the topics are quite endless…
Thank you for the kind words. I appreciate them very much.
Peace
Michael
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“The bees will buzz and swarm,
and agree with the butterflies:
even a forest can have a misfire
of apoptosis.” – To bee or not to bee? That is the question. – *smiles broadly*.
This is the second time in only two days that ‘apoptosis’ has popped up in my field of vision. I’m pleased *nods*. Great work Michael.
– esme floating like a butterfly and buzzing like a thousand thought-bees upon the Cloud
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Ha! Well wonderful, Esme! And thank you. It is a fun word to say, I find. You really know something is happening if you find yourself needing to say apoptosis. I first encountered it reading of an industrial water treatment technology that used ultrasound to cause the bacteria in the system to trigger their apoptosis reactions, and thus remain relatively clean by industrial standards. It is a little horrifying to imagine all those little organisms committing seppuku, so I like to think for them it was like hearing the true sound of the Big Bang up close and personal– the sound being so massive and so glorious and so intense, they vanished.
Peace
Michael
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” the sound being so massive and so glorious and so intense, they vanished.” – What a way to go! That shall bee just how esme departs as well! *winks laughing*
– esme enjoying all of Michael’s words upon the Cloud
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Michael, a magical exploration of change – the awareness of it and the transformation that comes with it and the possibility that change may very well be no change. Everything is mutable.
That’s where I went with this. Thanks for the ride on the carousel of life. Jubilantly – you can blame Mary if I start go a bit overboard with that word 🙂 – Harlon
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