Reflections On Water (Vol. 4, No. 1) - Poetry

2000 ways to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’
- an excellent debate of discernments
& discoveries

25 million people don’t care about me
- an existential potpourri angst
& freedom

23 minutes it took to write this poem
- an excessive investment in play
& mindfulness?

by Si Transken

my unclassifiable smoggy headache this morning
met me first thing & as i was making my first coffee
so it could make me functional
i was giving a lot of thought to writing a poem about stress
but then realized what time it was
so flew like a brain-injured owl toward the
blinding light of the bus.
got to the office, sorted mail, expected success,
lectured a class, marked papers as they marked me,
unpacked & repacked my brief cases & felt that poem trying
to snatch seen space.
had to go to the washroom & on the way
was hostaged into conversation about serious things
which required searching for books
& photocopying pages
until in any case nothing was brief anymore.
as my headache explained
its own importance & stealing some thoughts
about a lot of stress that wasn’t giving
realization to a poem my unlit mind
owled its way to the bus
harnessed to a body that was harnessed
to a some classy books
which needed reading for tomorrow
& their bindings lectured me
all the way home about fooling around
& managing my stress i ran to the grocery store
for something healthy but a donut
bit its way into my head &
i lectured myself about being out of control
as i made it home in time to return a few calls
& emails from people who expected
me to listen givingly to their unsorted stressbits
& now just before i go groggy to bed i’m realizing tomorrow
i might want to give some thought to writing a poem about stress.