BUNDLES OF STARLIGHT

Jasper National Park, Alberta, August 2017. Copyright © Michael D. Warden. All rights reserved.

BUNDLES OF STARLIGHT

This being human

feels sometimes

like screaming

across a great canyon

trying to be heard

even though

you’re right here

next to me

like there’s this

plexiglass wall

between us

and we, angry and blaming,

pound our fists

demanding the other

break the glass

and listen

each secretly terrified

of our inescapable

aloneness

Here in this wilderness

of everyone else

we brush casually past

one another

as if we weren’t all miracles

as if we aren’t all mystified

at being here

as if we don’t all need each other

to hold onto

to say “You’re okay”

to say “Let’s do this”

to walk on together

Sometimes it’s better

to just stop talking

and simply look

at the ones you need to love

be quiet

practice seeing

who they are

in the naked now

I’ll tell you a secret:

We are all magnificent

all like bundles of starlight

out walking around

all trying

to stop trying

to be something else