Andy Palasciano

Sea Grass

Collecting sea grass for Captain Nemo’s

seaweed cigars,

we have on a scuba suit that resembles an

astronaut suit

but like space, the ocean is largely unexplored.

Who knows what cities or monsters live

within,

like today, we call the 95% of the universe,

which we don’t understand,

dark matter,

and we cling to the 5% we do understand 

and say, 

“We’ve got it all figured out.”

The grass sways on the bottom of the ocean 

from the currents 

that we do not control.

We dance in out suits with the sun rising and hitting

the glass covering our eyes,

and the present contains the joy of

the future’s surprise.

The Walking Bridge

He had an office

that was an old house, converted,

that was down the street from a

walking bridge.

Each session we would

have a minute of 

meditation before we started.

I always envisioned us

walking down to that

walking bridge,

but we never did.

He told me about

one patient, that was

in her sixties,

encountering a pile of leaves

and jumping in them

and playing as she did

as a child.

I got the news that this doctor passed

and I can close my eyes now in meditation

and play in the leaves

just beyond the walking bridge.

The Thoughtless One

He sat with his elbow on his knee

and his palm under his chin like “The Thinker,”

yet the inscription on the platform he sat on, in the meadow of grass,

said, “ The Thoughtless One.”

There were leaves swirling around his head

with the wind blowing and whistling in the evening sky.

Children might bring to the statue, “The Thinker,”

questions about science and philosophy

and they may look in his eyes and get the answer

from his expression, “It is this,”

or, “I will think on that and get back to you.”

This statue, “The Thoughtless One”,

may have children arriving at the pedestal

and looking up into his eyes with similar questions

and he may say, with his expression,

“How should I know?”

or, “I know you are but what am I?”

The leaves would swirl up into a rain cloud with no rain.