Weed a corner of the garden, make a cup of coffee;
focus on small victories, mind absorbed in the moment.
Paint a computer key, perhaps for a brooch or magnet
head down, finding traction in colour and pattern.
Around me a full globe, a planet of busy humanity,
billions of people carefully averting their gaze
from the giddy wonder of expansive time.
Animals escaping flood water, stepping on each other
for clear and present safety.
Whole countries set their sights on momentary victories.
Companies and economies shift their feet like lizards on hot sand.
Hiding the infinite view in filigree nonsense;
fashion, progress and plastic markets.
I wonder at myself and my species
horrified by temporal vertigo, seeing surrender in stasis.
We patch our comprehension with obsession, novelty, conquest,
like compulsive bower birds or atavistic locusts,
blind to the aesthetics of equilibrium.
Some landscapes still breathe slowly, natural archives;
deserts and beaches wear swathes of time gracefully.
The night sky's hypnotic distances saturate the mind
pushing away the present, clearing a space for hope.