Surprisingly dominant
the hard world —
flags and batons,
limos and air-conditioners,
mounted mooseheads,
bullets.
Our soft bodyshells
must conform or be shed.
Yet the totems
within our heads
are not lampposts
without lamps.
Nothing the word —
that grammatical error,
that blank sticker affixed
to the frisson
of the variable —
a dispiriting magic.
As if we’ve somehow
met someone without
a confident otter,
a courteous raccoon,
an agreeable bluejay
within, living
its own life,
seeing and hearing
without eyes or ears
the ghostly bavardage
between our inner
and outer theaters.
The gift inside,
our own otherness
within us
near every reaching evergreen
every anonymous rock,
every resting butterfly,
beyond the rigidity
of human reason.
Steve Elder is in charge of Tea Service at the University of Colorado Law Library.
