I met Rumi on the train
might have been the last train to Transcentral
he said he was a slave to the moon, not “the”
i joined him
he welcomed me
3 preschool kids walked to us and asked if we knew the moon’s name
Rumi said Diana
i said Luna
one child said, “isn’t it Orca Matriarch?”
Rumi said yes, but he hadn’t ever heard that one; i said reassuringly, as you get older, you will hear soooooo many names of the moon
they all are true
all of them
they smiled, and walked away in search of ice cream
2026.04.19
s.e~b
.~.~.~.~.
Yet
embodied, yet spilling outside my skin
from both the cold dip, to the sauna, to the anticipating the lavender to bloom.
it’s the reverse, i know it…
of that guy,
who had the stone,
who carved the David,
out of the stone,
but said David was always in there,
all he did was remove the excess stone.
i am all i am seen to be
in my body
yet the cold spills me, beyond me
the sauna:
my borders blur,
we all see each other, our core for sure,
but when we blur our eyes, we see how each of us expands
outside the lines.
yet we always think of ourselves INside the lines. yet,
oh, how we aren’t.
how
we aren’t.
2026.04.19
s.e~b
.~.~.~.~.
Shears,
rusty metal now, but that’s ok, they work.
varnished wooden handles, smooth since 1963.
bought before the 1st of 4 sons was born.
the grown man used them on the edges of lawns, before they invented weed whackers.
number 2 son is Maxfield, the poet, so an outcast in his own home. he has a
twig
green with moss,
length of a finger,
no thicker than a Crow’s leg.
Crows come,
introduce themselves.
their names are soooooo long, because we’ve lost the sense of epic.
Crow names include:
parents
tree of birth
siblings, living and dead [including the nature of the deaths]
evocative emotional words describing their first memory of food
what brings them deep bliss
titles they have earned, through great feats
people they have loved, both Crow and human.
“May I have your twig?”
Maxfield says all the same information back, because he knows how it’s supposed to go.
puts moss twig in palm
Crow lands
and grabs it, to fly to the nest.
bone marrow says
one day
you will de-rust and polish
the blades
but not today.
2026.04.19
s.e~b
