Embrace the Paradox

Embrace the Paradox ~ Original Poetry © JA Valderrama

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Ever

I hear the melody, joyful and brash
A sweet sadness overtaking
Lyrical nostalgia, memory and aliveness
The thrumming beat of belief and import

Three years ago, notes broke the mold
A new era heralded, blazing like the sun
Yet there is no stopping and so we marched on
Enveloping, revising, overlooking
Forgetting much, buried in the now
But not the Now now, lost in the ticking of the clock

Then that tune plays again and I catch a glimpse
Like the thrill of a deep, rich breath
Cool air filling lungs with secret hope
It had seemed impossible then, to stretch that far
We did it somehow, glory ripening into old news

I am astounded by this so-called ordinariness
Of coming and going, beginnings and endings
The moments like waves, bringing tears to my eyes, ready to overwhelm
Others lament and deny, but to gasp at the tragic beauty!
To know, to feel, to be
From fresh darlings, daring and tender
To history done on our wistful skin
It is everything

Scrubbed to Dead

Sitting on a park bench

Sparrows flitting about

Soft sound of feathers fluttering

They hover before me

Surprised, I hold my hand out, testing

Scaled feet curl around the fat of my finger

Reaching out to take a bit of cookie

So carefully, their beaks never touching my skin

I trill in delight as they jerk about

A serendipitous serenade that cannot be bought or packaged

While crows and hawks swirl high above

A maelstrom of wings swooping and whirling

 

It stares us in the face

We blank it out

The richness around us

The petty annoyance of life

Disturbing our stricken slumber

Too deep, too real

Repelled by the earth, confused by the taste

Pulsing muscle and embarrassing secretions

Subtle smells masked in disinfectant

The riling mess behind neat curtains

The squirming dirt beneath the new rug

So taken in by our difference

By the promise of our nervous chatter

 

I sit on a park bench

Others nearby lost in their phones

Hunched over in blue light oblivion

Kicking away the birds like trash

Designer dogs with shampooed coats at their side

Overpriced shoes jabbing at the air

Caught in the shallow thrill of forgetting

Lab rats pressing that lever for cocaine

Again and again until nothing remains

But this feeling that something is missing

That we are walking phantasms

Lulling ourselves into fancy objects

Waiting in vain for the shiny perfect gates of heaven

Scrubbed to dead smooth surfaces

Basking in our shopping mall dream

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