Beyond Reason

author’s note:

Another poem previously posted and recently revised.

In case someone’s tempted to look...

...the Ecuador and Peru of this poem have no geographical location.


SAFE

I’ve heard of a bowl
of water in Ecuador--
or maybe, it’s Peru--

anyway,
when immersed
you feel positively
warm-blooded, held

in the mother’s womb; you feel
solitary but not alone

as if a distant eye watches you,
an eye quiet as an opal,
an eye that won’t interfere--

yet somehow you know
you are safe, no matter
what happens--even if fists
of waves beat the bowl--

even if
tremendous pressure
transforms the comforting stone
into brittle glass.

No matter if your head
and stomach roll down
and your feet slip up--

even if
you’re thrown out
to bake on dry naked land--

the feeling remains: still safe.

Though your nose be stuffed
with blood--and coal chunks block
your ears, eyes--the speck of you:
absolutely safe.

And later, when joy song
                                           skips your rock down

                        a long desert beach

          and you reflect

pure sunlight--

you know beyond thought
beyond horizons, beyond high,
beyond low--

you will always be in safe-keeping.

© 2008, Michael R. Patton
dreaming up steps