Existence

 

The timeless, perplexing and

sublimely complex creation

that hums and thrums throughout

the Universe holds endless

fascination for those times

when our minds contemplate

the unknowable vastness and

diversity that surrounds us, in

everlasting space, dark and

teeming with celestial bodies

whose chemistry the brilliance

of a scientific mind deciphers

beyond the comfort of we 

whose focus remains close at

hand, sighting about us the

wonder of ephemera, butterflies

and morning mist, spring peepers

and flowering vines, the fragrance

of favoured dishes, the flood of

memory bringing us to tears.

Our amazement that we were

born and out of fortune's sideways

glance we met to recognize our

future of shared thoughts, love

and tenderness, the care taken

in the duality of two becoming

as one, living our allotted time

given to a microscopic presence

within the great gyrating

wheel of the Universe.

 

 

In A Nutshell

 

It has been hundreds of thousands

of years in the making, far less 

a social construct than truly a

distinct gender difference that

even early homo sapiens understood

for they were not (self)-named

'man-the-wise' for nothing. That

females gave birth and in so doing

the busy mother and the mewling

infant required support to survive

was simply acknowledging reality

of a kind amply recognized by all

animal species. Those biological

adaptations resulting in male and

female merely Nature's formula

for reproduction as the mistress of

existence fiddled with her archaic

architectural plans melding physics

chemistry and organisms in a

choreography of imperious design 

to amuse her royal majesty, sole

witness and grand proprietress of

the dazzling, twisting Universe whose

infinite attention to scale and minute

detail alike inflicted upon Planet Earth

a species whose antics, emotions and

pathologies guaranteed her not one

wasted moment of suspense. Assuming

she endowed those females with so

many attributes not unlike her own

creation among them. The puzzle left

would be what she exampled the

male psyche upon in her fertile

imagination, laughing indulgently

as he created the idea of an all 

powerful deity, just incidentally

in his very own humble image.

 

 

Sign of Our Times

 

When our children were young

and adorably stubborn and their

parents adamant that they be

compliant in consuming the

nutritious food served them in

those proportions suitable for

young bodies to thrive, growing

healthy and robust, it took both

their parents' entreaties to convince

them their chiming complaints were

unjustified and unuseful to their

actual needs. Occasionally they

might relent and pick daintily at
the fish, liver or brassica offending

them on their dinner plates, even

on occasion lift a morsel to their

downward curling lips and manage

to gulp them down, with much

encouragement. Adults now, their

tastes encompass mostly what

they long ago spurned, while

those still offensive tastes are

banished. Alone, together at our

dinner table, it is I alone who

remonstrates on those occasions

when our children's father fails

to appreciate those same dinner

offerings rejected by our offspring

a sign of our less tumultuous times.

 

 

EverythingSomehow

Scientists used nine years of data from NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe to create this detailed, all-sky image of the cosmic microwave background. The image reveals 13.8-billion-year-old temperature fluctuations (shown as different colors) – seeds that grew into the galaxies we see today.

NASA/WMAP Science Team

 

A single immensely singular

infinite density of matter and 

antimatter and no one to know

of its non-existence. It just was

the event of creation, the universe

appearing from no thing its

patient arrival as an indescribable

quantum event of huge mystery

and sublime presence. A mere

fourteen billion years ago, an

event unprecedented and explicit

as a representation of awe

as in awful and as in exemplifying

impossible; just simply became.

From nothing but a hidden

presence unassuming and

precipitate came the ineffable

cosmos, its still lingering

microwave shifting in time and

space validating the existence of 

all. How? Do not trouble yourself.

 

 

The Nourished Mind

 

What is a dwelling place
not graced with the presence
of books but a temporary
resting place for someone's
corporeal essence, soon
enough to be snuffed in
the fullness of the human
expiration date. Indifference
to opening one's mind to the
mysteries that surround us
here and then gone, adds
little to the human passage
in limited time. The home
invested in knowing the
world and its surroundings,
honing a familiarity with
humankind's awareness
of the immensity of the 
universe and our own minds
within it savours immortality
and celebrates the very triumph
of our transitory existence.

 

 

Generational

 

When we were young, a
lifetime ago, our parents
hauled us off to shoe stores
looking for sturdy footwear
impervious to the heavy duty
stress young limbs in motion
inflicted upon them. In service
to the solemn occasions
experienced older salesmen,
family men themselves, knew
the routine well that we so
loathed as much as the product
bringing forward nastily
rugged stock at the stated
upper-price limit. When our
own children were young that
drill had seen slight options.
The parents whose wallets
were strained had children
whose earning fortunes far
outstripped their own. Their
offspring, however, had academic
opportunities never dreamed of
by their parents. Now, in their
grandchildren's time there are
no shoe shops, only the grand
shopping emporiums of 
"super stores" and "big box stores"
large and complex enough to
threaten directional confusion,
and the hordes of those servicing
clients in the "sport"-obsessed
community are the hip young
zealously serving the needs of
shoppers, themselves academic-
adverse, no employment available
but salary-lean and obligingly
and regretfully service-oriented.

 

 

Ode To Youth

 

 

When he was bright and
new to life he was
perfection in form and
essence personified. Nature
herself must have spent
painstaking hours in research
and development to breed
a living, trotting, emotive
toy. Wherever he went
adoring crowds followed
eager to view him, touch
him, hold him And he
grand master in his
Lilliputian world, reciprocated
allowing himself on display
to be held and endlessly
admired. As we all grow
old, so has he, and adoration
no longer enthuses him
for he can no longer hear
the squeals of joy his 
presence elicits, and wishes
to be held only by us, our
elderly little companion.
Still sweet to behold, but
exceedingly cantankerous
bald, sight-impaired with age.