| Neighboring You
On a table
With the sunlight coming in,
A mat, irregularly placed, with
many curves within it;
A napkin somewhat used, by now a
little disreputable,
On the mat and on a plate, blue
and white,
With the plate seeming to shelter
the napkin,
And space between the plate and
the napkin —
Space like space in Alberta, Canada;
Alaska; or New Jersey.
The space under the disreputable
napkin
Is with the great democracy of existence
called the Space Republic,
Empire, Territory, Nothingness.
And, look! a cucumber is standing
upright in a container,
With half a cucumber near it, but
seeming to be aloof.
Radishes are here, tumbling rather
neatly,
With one radish on top of another,
standing as a lookout.
A quiet tall glass, looking a trifle
used and just a trifle dirty,
Stands above and to the side of
the mat.
A letter just received, telling
how good Aesthetic Realism is,
looks towards an apartment
building across the street,
with dainty fire-escapes,
And the blue sky, flatly across
the apartment building and
some rather murky lettering
to the side.
This, my friends, is existence,
The meaning of which will last forever.
It is all reality, to be sure, including
the disreputable napkin
neighboring the slice
of cucumber,
And somehow neighboring you, the
reader. |