Ode to Wonder
Do not deal in the currency of cynicism.
The value of that coin is falling
due to inflation.
Rather, cherish wonder
which becomes rarer each year
until it falls on the ear like a forgotten language
you knew before you knew what knowing was.
Children deal naturally in wonder
they have it in abundance
they pay it out freely and never lack
until
they begin to know things.
Then wonder slips through pocket-linings
leaks away like light from a setting-sun sky
or is quickly and tragically shattered:
mercury and shards of glass.
We grow. We learn the names of things:
bird, horse, tree. Skyscraper, car, cellphone.
Work, money, job. You, me, mine.
We learn to take sides
trading the eyes of wonder
for the blindness of cynicism.
I do not believe in the invisible, we say;
I do not believe in love
as if belief has anything to do with it.
Experiences we cannot name get relegated
to the realm of non-existent and therefore
unreal.
