By Michael H. Brownstein
Open the window – smell the sweet sweat of sunshine.
Step to the curb – the trees flower within glitters of light.
Take a walk – everywhere the busy dance of squirrel and
Rabbit, vole and robin, ground hog and garden snake.
Do you not see the deer with its doe? The raccoon with its kits?
When was the last time you watched a sunrise? A sunset?
A mixing of orange and pink within a ball of falling fire,
A sliver of wind crowing through leaf and brush, the song
Of the newborn, the melody of the mating frog, an anthem –
Is this not enough? Take a hike with me among the living.
Join the lovers jogging to the music of surf and cloud,
Bird and breeze. Pick mulberries from the wild tree,
Huckleberries from the wild vines, the small plantations
Of wild strawberry and the first ripe greens of the dandelion.
Can you not taste them? Race through the tall unkempt grass
in the field, find a coming together of tracks, choose one
Going downhill, going uphill, rising with the waterfall
Of rainbows and mist, a beauty as wonderful as love.
Here is the field of dance and joy and everything good in life.
Turn off the television – the slap of living is in your breath.
Turn off the video-game – turn off the Internet – do not
Carry your phone with you for a day, a week, a month –
Fill your stomach and eyes, your taste buds, your nose.
Fill yourself not with yourself, but with the vibrant flow of life.
| Copyright © 2019 by Michael H. Brownstein Michael H. Brownstein’s volumes of poetry, A Slipknot Into Somewhere Else and How Do We Create Love?, were published by Cholla Needles Press in 2018 & 2019, respectively. |
My reaction to this poem was instant love. It speaks to me, and it can but speak to anyone harassed by contemporary life. Bravo, and many, many thanks for the submission! I intend to practice the resolutions you offer, or suffer for not.
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