James Moore Poet Narrative

Notes About The Poem

An Unbalanced Equation

("A Question of Balance", 2019, original encaustic)

An Unbalanced Equation

My wife is in the middle of her cataract procedure,
One eye done and another to go.
Generally, it’s a remarkable thing
Which we take for granted -
Both our sight and the technology to repair it.

I think of the doctor doing her surgery
How he helps hundreds a year
And tens of thousands in his career.
And the machine's inventor and manufacturer
Who help millions
Then compare this degree of benefit
To those among us who do nothing positive
And those who do plenty negative.

There’s no comparison
Yet we’re told by the scolds
That everyone is equal
When it’s obvious to even the simplest
That we’re not.

These are the simple facts of life
We’re not all equal
Nor of equal worth
And in a just world this is recognized
With either reward or punishment
We live in such a just world
But only just.

It’s a world in flux
Always a little out of balance
As it spins on its tilted wobbly axis.
And as bad as that may seem
It’s exactly as it should be.
Life after all isn’t at all about a static state
Nor so much about balance itself
As the harmony that comes
From balancing the conflicts and contradictions
Our wobbly tilted spinning way brings.

This is our first conscious lesson in life after all,
That walking is a series of controlled falls
And that running, hopping and jumping are fun
And that the way forward
Can only come from trying and failing
Getting up and trying again.

We do this enough,
Surrounded by enough different others
And we discover the harmony
The imbalance holds.

(8/16/24)

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