the touch of reality

'Common folk,' says Lactantius,
'are much wiser for knowing what they need to know.'

Wisdom is Ignorance is Bliss
Everything else is utterly useless—
frivolous, trivial, superfluous.
As such, pedantry is often superciliously
knowledge of what others need not know,
a self-righteous avocation of the mind
when one is less inclined to make deeds
one’s self-realizing occupation.

“What a man truly knows he can toss about at will,
without regard for the author or need to fumble in a book.”
~ Michel de Montaigne

Such is why man that toils with his hand
reaps the true spoils of life and land.
What is most essential is hard and existential—
palpable, manifest, somatically true.
Real to the touch, and as clear and blue
as our eyes confirm the sky to be;
piquing as redolently as the potency
of a playful you and me—
and the sweat and must
of our youthful and vigorous
love-making.

Let Me Touch
like falling cherry petals your face
after you come circling in the stillness
our hearts like hummingbirds
let me sweet pink & tender kiss your breasts
your eyes closed softly in dreams of whirling stars
our bellies
wet & stuck

~ chrystos,
self-described
Native American
Lesbian
poet
(and activist)

in the beginning .00 daily archives

l.m