Best Unwitting Poems
Have you ever considered
the many cases
where family albums
show strangers' faces?
Some of those faces
may well be your own
standing off in the background
apart and unknown
But don't take my word for it
See for yourself
Your album of strangers
is up on your shelf
There's your concert photo
with your best friend Zack
But who are those people
hanging 'round in the back?
You have no idea
and neither does he
But there they all are
for your family to see
I'm sure you have others
but one is enough
in proving my point
which you cannot rebuff
Imagine that maybe
in some obscure book
on a library shelf
where people will look
You've made an appearance
in a photograph there
and many have seen you
while you're unaware
Just an unwitting subject
in the camera's eye
captured forever
as you happened by
Out there in the world
I'm willing to bet
somewhere there's a family
perhaps in Tibet
Viewing their photos
of trips from afar
and they're wondering just
who the heck you are
You're standing right there
in plain sight of all
right next to their grandmother
Ling from Nepal
You took the same photo
with your companion
near Ling and her family
at The Grand Canyon
They're here in our pictures
as we are in theirs
All over the world
we're caught unawares
So, why do I ponder
this subject so deep?
Oh no reason really
I just couldn't sleep
3/1/19
Unwitting Creator
Three decades of habitats
hacked to the ground
only a stump remaining
You see it was in the way of establishment
Mourning tree's beauty
and lost pairs of visitors in all coloration
It took a while to see
Crying in vain
not noticing the open plain
the hacker fortuitously created
A playground for dragonflies
now flying untethered
socializing in the new spacious range
The hacker kept hacking
yet was powerless too hold back the power of nature
The stump kept on flourishing
despite the hackers intent
Now colorful vistors
manifest in pairs again
just a little lower
and dragonflies leave the grounds
with a belly full of mosquitos
$10,000 dresses
blatantly ostentatious
silk worms unaware
The unwitting days of Autumn,
And the carefree days of Fall—
They bid farewell to Summertime,
And without a care, at all.
And were the Fall to think a thought,
Whatever would it be?
Other than to contemplate
Which of all the leaves to free.
For She harbors no resentments,
Owing not a single debt—
She travels on a balmy breeze,
Free of worry, or regret.
Autumn has no aspirations,
No account, nor purse to fill—
Autumn gently takes a sable brush
Turning red both wood, and hill.
Still the majesty of Autumn,
Comes again, though never stays—
How I envy Her oblivion,
And Her unpretentious ways.
And though Winter steals her color,
Turning amber fields, to white;
Autumn—if for but awhile—
Turns my worries to delight!
They don't rectify the problem-
They just make it
Comfortable.
Their kindness feels mellow
But somehow the havoc grows optimistic.
They mean well-
Which is why trouble keeps
Duplicating itself.
They don't start the mess-
They just keep giving it room
To be viable.
Every disaster has a confidant-
The one who keeps defending it.