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Getting Used to Life
Getting used to life
is all about conjunctions
and possibly a few adverbs:
but, though, however, unless,
either/or, because, nonetheless,
although, therefore, if, and, of course,
maybe. Especially maybe.
Let’s say, for example, there is, oh,
whatahell, an afterlife. But the evidence
from here and now however
is seriously anorexic. Still, of
course, maybe it’s true. Despite
all that nasty-thin evidence to
the contrary. Though, if you
posit, say, God, as either
in charge (however thinly) of things
or merely Deus absconditus, and therefore
factor in maybe as if both were possible—
Ok, that is unless you actually care for those
creepy midnight thoughts making jaguar
tracks across your occipital lobe. So, maybe
putting aside for the moment all that is patterned—
since you must know even the true magnetic pole
is hightailing it toward Siberia at a clip of
25 miles a year. Well then, therefore we must
rearrange the scheme of just about every
necessary truth, even God. Although, for the Aztecs,
you’ll recall, to guard against scorpions, wasps, snakes,
or a dense jungle of jaguars, an offering
of either a ball of rubber or a bundle of kindling
was said to work wonders. Altogether, a maybe.
However, all this is finally to say there are way too many
dangling commas piling up everywhere here. Which,
nonetheless, at last brings everything to a single, simple.
Although, on the other hand, everything might well be
a thoughtfully continuing, but ever confusing, ellipsis . . . .
That is, . . . ah, maybe.
Illusion is Really
illusion is really
with the 3rd eye of Shiva
planted to jolt reality
into a kind of Cyclopean
twist as it were (Greek here,
of course), in the blink of
an imaginary spiritual eye there.
But even this symbolic eye, worn mostly
by Hindu women as it seems,
still remains blind to a great
many things. For instance, how
to practice nothingness while
eating a McVeggie in Mumbai? Or
worse, trying to secure justice
in a decidedly aghast world. Still,
this is dreamed about, surely, by
countless Tibetan monks and nuns,
their ancient prayer wheels whirling. Hindu
fakirs stretched out on beds of nails.
So we must be patient here. But I would keep
my own wisdom eye, third or otherwise,
if not on Shiva at least on the all-knowing Internet.
After all, you can buy a book on how
to open your 3rd eye on Amazon.com
for only $34.97, plus shipping. A used
paperback even cheaper.
Ed Higgins' poems and short fiction have appeared in Duck & Herring Co.'s Pocket Field Guide,
Monkeybicycle, Pindeldyboz, and Bellowing Ark, as well as the online journals Lily, Cross Connect, Word Riot,
The Centrifugal Eye, and Red River Review, among others. He lives on a small farm in Yamhill,
Oregon with a menagerie of animals including a rescued potbelly pig named Odious. He teaches writing and
literature at George Fox University, south of Portland, OR.
Email: Ed Higgins
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