September 28, 2021

a brief history of anything

Begin where you are. Say, the wet patch of pine needles where you find yourself
standing on a Monday afternoon. There is more to know about what came before,
of course, all the way down to the origin story of two tectonic plates,
scraping each other loose, but you don’t have that kind of time.
So, bend to meet the dirt of the present tense. Center your knees.
Make a tripod of your body. Snap the moment clean at the edges,
leaving the highway and the traffic cop and the strip malls at the far perimeter.
Watch the cast of light on any given thing, the spectacular fact of its survival.
I wonder if the question we need to be asking is not how did this happen but
what shall we make of this, now that we are here to see it?