60

It seems..

no, not ‘seems’- is..

It is that I am more ready, more wanting at 60

than I was at 10

to see

the sun rise

a pelican dive

a mountain

an ocean

a hummingbird zoom

the moon- harvest, blue, waning, or full.

It is true, at 10:

that there was more to imagine

than there was to remember.

But I only know that because I’m 60 now,

and it is easier to imagine what I missed seeing

than it is to remember what I did see,

even though I know what I saw then

is (yes, is) why

I can imagine so easily,

so very easily,

what still

is to be seen.

(David Weber 7/5/10)

Peculiarities

I am not thankful that such peculiar circumstances existed,

but I am thankful that I have, in my brain, memories

synaptically retrievable, at will,

of the white men on the foundry floor at the Eljer plant in Salem

who had the union jobs, in metal cubicles with loud noisy fans,

and who used hand tools- grinders and buffers- and wore goggles and metal gloves.

And that it was the black men (all older, all non-union)

who pushed brooms over floors

that were clean only for moments at a time.

(David Weber 7/5/10)