change your mind

behind the burka

 

In Syria, anyone over 65 is not allowed to leave the house during the pandemic.

But some older people are still youthful.

Why oppress them?

Let the older ones have a few more years of light and water and leaf in the forest they have known so long.

 

The Woodcutter Changes His Mind
by David Budbill

When I was young, I cut the bigger, older trees for firewood, the ones
with heart rot, dead and broken branches, the crippled and deformed
ones, because, I reasoned, they were going to fall soon anyway, and
therefore, I should give the younger trees more light and room to grow.
Now I’m older and I cut the younger, strong and sturdy, solid
and beautiful trees, and I let the older ones have a few more years
of light and water and leaf in the forest they have known so long.
Soon enough they will be prostrate on the ground.
 
David Budbill “The Woodcutter Changes His Mind” from While We’ve Still Got Feet. Copyright © 2015 by David Budbill. Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC on behalf of Copper Canyon Press, http://www.coppercanyonpress.org.

Portal #9 In the Now

Orleans, Cape Cod

when I am only here and now and nowhere else—then, and only
then, do I see the crippling power of mind, the curse of thought,
and I pause and wonder why I so seldom find
this shining moment in the now.

“This Shining Moment in the Now” by David Budbill from While We’ve Still Got Feet. © Copper Canyon Press, 2012.