I love paradox. I love seeming contradiction. I love putting them side by side. Just like complementary colors when placed side by side, create an edge that seems to shimmer, paradox expands our knowing into understanding.
This week I have been playing with those ideas in poem form. This is an unfinished poem, but I wanted to share where I am in the journey. I decided to write about the autumnal equinox because it is one of two days in the year when day and night are the exact same length. That equality of contradiction was exactly what I wanted to explore.
Autumnal Equinox
I stand
in dry weeds
hip high
and in short
damp grass
at the edge of the vegetable garden
between the spent blue lake beans
gone to seed
and the pregnant yellow-blush tomatoes
The air from the pasture
rises warm alfalfa sweet
leaving the ground beneath it cold and sharp
And that sound
the scream that masquerades as silence
at the insect changing of the guard
half the swarm readies for rest
half charges the dusk
Attacking my ankles
I am become a bistro to the miniscule
I know better
but I refuse to wear long pants
or socks
or shoes
I bite into a warm tomato
juice crawls down my arms
drips onto my cold feet
I am 37.