Just a Few Quick Snips

Photo by Stephanie Schaefer, Los Molinos

EYELIDS
—Stephen Dobyns

Shy defiers of the existential world,
you draw your veil across the unpleasant,
then the head turns away, the body turns away,
the feet trudge off toward someplace nice, but you,
you were the first, you drew the initial curtain.

Oh, cautious celebrators of the decorous,
how much has gone unwitnessed or unjudged,
how much remains unchanged due to your benign
interference? Why reduce the world to this
middle range of behavior, as if the story

contained only happy couples on lawn chairs
nibbling macaroons and sipping soothing drinks.
Don't you fear the darkness will squeeze you tight
because of your ignorance of it?
Oh, my shy ones, forgive this desecration—

the chrome of the scissors will sparkle in your eyes,
while your being closed only simplifies my task.
A few quick snips and the light will shine forever.
Gaze upon it. See that fire, those cold stones.
This is the world to love. There is no other.

____________________

Today's LittleNip:

A QUIET GATHERING
—Stephanie Schaefer

No balloons or confetti
no ballroom elite
no self-congratulation
no pep rally cheers.

Just a quarter million people
gathered outdoors
saying "yes we can"
like a prayer.

___________________

—Medusa