mistake
Poetry (3/5)

mistake

I believe that it is logically impossible / to have a mistake in nature

mistake

I believe that it is logically impossible
to have a mistake in nature
 
This thought
the one sanctuary
 
If allowing one
then allowing all…
atoms and interstellar space
mushroom, rat, defecation, disease and detritus
plastic particles in the belly of the whale
sunsets, salty tears, the perfect embrace of a child
concrete slabs, slush sprayed transfer trucks
barrelling angrily 
ant-like legions cleaving the land
box store developments sprawl
consuming marshes where warblers once trilled in the dawn
 
patchy parking lots
the alien view
of displaced humans
mining for meaning and they rise and descend
pressing shoulders in the infinite echo of mirrored elevators
 
And the Walmarts.
And every Walmart-like-thing
towering cathedrals
in homage to a sick and ever excreting god
 
Infill the crooked creek
that once held a boy’s daydreams upon its bank
 
And none of it necessary
the beauty or the ill
but all of it being.
None the less.
Still.

Illustration of young hands precariously stacking rocks.
“None of it Necessary” by Greta Riondato

And so
this is where I store my solace
not in some varnished hope
of imminent revolutionary insight
or a sudden coordinated compulsion toward good taste

I would be cynical but a cynic cracks herself
between potential
and a disappointing present
No cynic am I
toss potential out the roaring car window
into the eye of the rushing wind
good-bye.

What is is. What shall be shall be.
The ugly. The plastic. The blindness. The hate.
The beauty. The sunset.
And me.

Filed Under: Poetry & Prose

Poetry by

Millefiore Clarkes is an award-winning filmmaker and editor from Canada’s smallest province, Prince Edward Island. Through her company One Thousand Flowers Productions she produces a variety of media work: documentaries, music videos, drama, experimental shorts, and video installations.

Illustrations by

Greta Riondato is an Italian multimedia visual artist, sculptor, designer and mother of two. Born and raised in the Veneto region of North Italy, Greta has been immersed in the world of art her entire life.

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