Your Green Slip

author's note:

"In the Spring, a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love."
              -- Tennyson

And maybe an older man's fancy too.


YOUR GREEN SLIP

The moment
I glimpsed your green slip
I felt myself lift

up
out of that dark underground artery--

hooked by a hunger
I wanted to ignore
but wanted to obey

and obeyed, because
I knew I would return

to explore
as monks long have--
believing
as fools long have:

if we plot enough coordinates
in this confusion of tunnels
we'll eventually realize
the magnificence of a labyrinth

and know just where we are.

But today, I'll obey the hunger
and maybe tomorrow too

because to live with confusion
we must occasionally forget
our confusion
by giving and receiving
in the manner
of kittens and puppies.

© 2018, Michael R. Patton
what I learned while alone: poetry ebook