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.