You Will Never Know All There Is to Know about Me, John Grey

Gillian Sargeant, Icon of Albus Dumbledore, 12″ X 9,” acrylic

 

YOU WILL NEVER KNOW ALL THERE IS TO KNOW ABOUT ME

 

Yes, here I am, sitting beside you.
And being human and having a brain,
that raises some questions.
Physically, its appearance is in no doubt.
But symbolically? A snarled tree trunk?
A baby’s food dish?

All I know is it’s capable of admiring you
and balancing three large concepts at the same time.
All are active and participating even as we speak.
One spiritual, one architectural, one anatomical.
Even a break for a badly remembered joke.
And there’s something evolving that’s indefinable.
Nowhere to file it. Nothing to hang it on.

My brain is also like a sky where different birds cross
in random flocks and sometimes on a solitary mission.
Even as I reach out to touch you,
one is dodging a hunter’s bullet spray.
Does it make a difference to you
knowing there’s more going on than just us?
Or does it all apply to we two anyhow
and I just can’t keep up with the abstraction?

Strange how when I ask you questions
my brain queries me.
Is your name John?
Am I your inner self or merely one more creditor?
From the rim of one thought,
another is hanging upside-down.
One is a dangling vine with the other end invisible.
And look there, at the edge of it all, a baby’s laughing face.
Of course, you can’t see, can only hear my translation.

In my brain, there are many sub-clauses in small print.
There is evidence for everything and nothing.
There is news, a woman’s name, a man’s.
Sadly, some of the information is dated.
Where an idea might extend there’s nothing but void.
Don’t worry. You’re outside the frame.
In time, you’ll come to appreciate that.

_________________________
John Grey

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