HYMN OF THE BIG WHEEL

PART OF WHERE THE POEM CAME FROM
​Emotions: Powerlessness, empathy, tenacious in face of futility 
Song/Sound
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M9muYyYxhI

HYMN OF THE BIG WHEEL
​
By the canal, a boat is moored.
It rests without sails, like an old
Dutch painting, windless and stationary.
 
The path by the creek winds
with the rush of spring, opened
up by bird song. My russet dog
 
sniffs a trail of all those who came
before – inhaling the weight of centuries.
He runs as free as a soul released
 
from a body. When I walk with him
in these strange, long, heavy days
I feel the same. A sympathetic
 
displacement of myself into a
dog’s body, some kind of
transspecies transference.
 
The crunch and snap of twigs
underfoot and I’m back in a café
at a time when we could sit face
 
to face, convene over a coffee
wait all day for what we needed
lean in a little closer.
 
The way the earth leans
now, on its axis
so I can hear you breathing
 
all of you, out there
in your silences.