My Bus Worries Me
Epicurus the Greek philosopher
tells me not to fear death.
He goes, Why should you fear death?
If you are, then death is not.
If Death is, then you are not.
Why should you fear
something that only exists
when you do not?
I look up from my book to see
if it’s my bus. #9. Not #7.
When I look back down at
my book, a thought comes to me:
If I am here, then the bus is not.
If the bus is here, then I am gone.
Should I be worried if the bus
comes when I am not here?
Isn’t it because death exists
when I do not that I should be worried?
Isn’t it because I exist here
when the bus does not that I should be worried?
Where is my bus?
Oh dear.
Voice of Yesterday Morning
Our system is not a system of control.
It is a system of empowerment.
—After Dr. Martin Brokenleg
You can never control your morning.
You can only empower it,
and let it empower you.
Welcome it with belonging,
be it sunny, cloudy, or empty.
Leave a quarter in your heart
for it to live in you, and you in it.
See that as the sun rises, your morning
would come to master its role in the universe, eager
to share with you its talents, its discoveries, like a child
learning a new word and wielding it for the first time.
Understand your morning would graduate
from the school of dawn, searching and gasping for
independence, for transformation. And recognize
the generosity within you and your morning.
For you, and for others, it is ready to give away
all it has, as in a potlatch, as much as you are.
Know that the legacy of a morning
lasts well beyond the night.
Know too the beauty of a morning
exists even in your absence.
Yet when you are nearby,
your morning can be more beautiful.
Strangers
I prefer keeping in mind even the possibility
that existence has its own reason for being.
Written by Wisława Szymborska & Translated by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh
I prefer you today.
I prefer you tomorrow.
I prefer you with me to
you without me.
I prefer you speaking
a language I don’t understand.
I prefer you cooking
a dish I’ve not yet tried.
I prefer you keeping
a secret or two about yourself.
I prefer us sleeping with the idea
that our lives have their reasons for
co-existence.