or, "In Defense of Optimism"
6/15/03
Only fools and children
Bare their bellies to the air
And soften themselves
To blows to the heart,
To sleight of steel and callused words.
The old and wise
Have covered bodies and souls
In lackluster glasses
To shield against evil
And sunsets.
Alive am I to science:
I know a gentle recipe
Of dust and raincloud
Concocts the bronze
And amber in my skies.
If habit and knowledge
Combined to mar
The ignorance within me,
I would be coarsened by now.
For I would have been blinded
By the combined power
Of seven thousand sunsets
If habit and knowledge
Were enough to shield the soul.
Instead it is a conscious stare
That casts my eyes at unshrouded sun,
To see new within me every day,
And goldness triumphing over gray,
Instead of seeing clouds there
And some dust on which to choke.
