5 august

so much is and which should be but or even or
conjunctions whose function is to amass crash us with overladen shopping carts and empty hearts
or is a simplifier a decision-maker raking through the leavings
we're grieving for the time we'd rather waste in looking past
where have all the hours gone but who is why to us
when the clocks are empty and the what is still unknown
we are rezoning our parks and darkening the doorways of livingroom television
revising surprising developments with lakes and brooks in their names
the farms upon which nothing grows
the meadows where there are no fields to yield explanation
our fascination with creation of the unreal steals light from the now
how our gardens grow and when we ought to water
daughters and sunny friends to lend their messages to
the stress streams through and off to greater balance as we shed
led by shorter lists the or we missed in counting off and down