LITTLE WONDER
Clearly it is time
To become disillusioned, each person to enter his soul’s desert
And look for God – having seen man.
- Robinson Jeffers (“The Soul’s Desert”)
Relegated to rooms, little wonder humans
become dull and predictable, become old
within tight pens hung with many diversions
to keep them calm – little wonder comfort
and convenience rule this claustrophobe
with something new each day to work for
into the future. No man is immune, not
even the natives, not even the Great Blue
Heron fishing from steep, concrete sides
of the Friant-Kern Canal. Progress begets
fresh opportunities to be swept away,
new addictions to cling to as we turn
our backs on the inhospitable ground,
the jagged edge of granite lake reflections
we’d grind into gravel if it would pay.