Saturday, September 25, 2010

the habit of a human

a ghost saw me on my moon walk

my walks have become a habit

like that of a nun

all black and robed

only my scrubbed raw skin in view

the ghost glided up the hill

and looked back over a shimmery shoulder

and I knew

my habit was transparent

my limbs and beating secret exposed

naked

vulnerable

the ghost made a decision

in the flash of an earthly moment

to see my bare hairless flesh as human

Human

Human

what human could resist walking

what human could resist the moon

what human could turn away from caring about a drowning in the sea

about the life one cannot cease to see

in the solitary moments

of a million moon walks

of a million words

of a million

poems

that

rip off the skin

8 comments:

  1. Had to read again. This really blows me away.

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  2. to bare yourself in words is to be human

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  3. one of your best writes ever.....

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  5. Very interesting tone here, Nic. If I had to describe it, I would call it "minimalist humanism" A statement of "this is what humanity is, and I won't put any pretense to it."

    I will read it over a couple more times to see what I can further glean from it. It's one of those poems that I think has other meanings buried in the words.

    "what human could resist walking
    what human could resist the moon
    what human could turn away from caring about a drowning in the sea"

    is a particularly interesting passage. There seems to be an angst about what we should and should not pay attention to in the world as human beings.

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