Baton
Posted: May 2nd, 2008, 7:38 am
and our greatest odyssey was never written
by the poet or historian, but rather
in the sea, the mud and branches,
by those made in god's image -
perambulating upon four legs
or perhaps none at all, and
what was forgotten surpasses
all that is remembered
the eons of experience, that dies and then
is born again, singular unto itself, privy
to the herd and flock and school and swarm
that fly and swing and swim and climb
and die,
without knowing or caring why.
A legacy unasked for,
a way and a path, born
of necessity and death, unheralded
and unknown to all its practitioners
passing the baton in a race
that is forgotten upon completion
to be run, again and again
in the tides and currents of the matriarch elemental,
mother of the animal fates.
for Loren Eiseley
by the poet or historian, but rather
in the sea, the mud and branches,
by those made in god's image -
perambulating upon four legs
or perhaps none at all, and
what was forgotten surpasses
all that is remembered
the eons of experience, that dies and then
is born again, singular unto itself, privy
to the herd and flock and school and swarm
that fly and swing and swim and climb
and die,
without knowing or caring why.
A legacy unasked for,
a way and a path, born
of necessity and death, unheralded
and unknown to all its practitioners
passing the baton in a race
that is forgotten upon completion
to be run, again and again
in the tides and currents of the matriarch elemental,
mother of the animal fates.
for Loren Eiseley