ITS LIKE THIS

It may be that life is only worthwhile at moments. Perhaps that is all we ought to expect.
—Sherwood Anderson

You’re in the everydayness of it,

stuck in the human groove,

the endless refrain.

It really is difficult

to keep going—

what with the cats trying to speak,

the daylilies dying

in full view of the kitchen window

and the half-hidden bed of dandelions

that the mower missed.

It’s like that with us—

negotiating

fault lines

between the miraculous

and the mundane.

How else could you do it?

This daydream,

this trick of the mind.

We can’t all be Gurus

of the Moment, Masters

of the Now.

Better to join the mortal troop

if only for the comfort

of a good grooming.

Nirvana must be

a lonely place.

Allow me

my tribal nature, my pedestrian habits.

In all my lemmingness—

let me be

one of them.