fear not dreams

 dreams so vivid

i all but believe i am awake

but somewhere deep, i know

these people have died

and i fear not being with them

looking away

looking away

 even when i am aware

i miss looking up or out or down

or over at the right time

baseball is so boring for me

because i look away just as something

exciting happens—and there are long

spells between moments of excitement

but worse are the spectaculars

of the night sky i never see as i sleep

or try to peer through fog or rain

as the meteor showers of august

the world is part of something

so much larger that we might know

if we could view beyond ourselves

even an ‘if’

 rejecting guilt does nothing to heal damage or to reverse

what we are doing to harm

even an ‘if’ i am part of what is happening

might make us aware of what we could do to help