30/52: the man, Rorschach

The day fades in from darkness
and we see a man leaning
against the counter in a kitchen somewhere,
coffee in both hands raised as if he were about to drink
but his gaze is unfocused at a point a thousand miles
past the cabinets it is directed at.

It is a moment for the opening scene of a movie

except someone didn't pay the sound engineers -
you know those guys whose names scroll endlessly
at the end while you are weighing the ethics
of picking up your popcorn and half empty giant slurp -
so there is no soundtrack.

What does this scene mean without the music
of this man's life?

He becomes a Rorschach test
where we impose all our own emotions,
triumphs and failures on him
and he doesn't even know it.

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Audio:

https://youtu.be/7dDFGi95dLU or

https://soundcloud.com/mbonica/the-man-rorschach

29/52: equinox

This is the day when all things are equal
and we are ambivalent about coming or going.

The river runs shallow after the summer's heat.

I stand on the bank, feet dry,
in a place where, at the solstice,
the water would have stroked my ankles.

Present time runs down now,
down to the ocean of past.

I hold my paddle and consider my boat
resting on the grass gone to hay.

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audio: https://soundcloud.com/mbonica/equinox
or https://youtu.be/p-UCRVdOYCE