Seen Through Till the End
Dedicated to Rachel Davis

Each time a car backfires
A bird doesn’t hatch
And this makes worms multiply

Every time you stand before the mirror and lock eyes
With yourself
A baby gives up the fight
And a parent cries

Because every time a hand grabs another
Fireflies pick a new spot to gravitate around
And a picnic is saved

Each time you jump in a pool
A mosquito spreads disease
To a small animal
Which eats another animal
And then drops dead

The way you button your shirt,
Top to bottom
Or the opposite,
Determines if a whaling ship
Makes it home one more time

Each cigarette you light
Adds one more sparrow to the world
And a jukebox in some forgotten bar
Gives it up for good
And a lonely man winces
Knowing he must face the daylight without support

And each dream you have where you die
Causes a Mongolian to drop dead
And a Buddhist gets one step further
From enlightenment
Because he realizes he needs food

Each time a Buddhist reaches enlightenment
A grocer’s strike hits Western Europe
And people have to shop less
Which makes the economy stall
And foreign leaders promise aid
That they deny their own people

And when a small boy in the Congo
Gets his own gun
The whole neighborhood laughs
To see him there with the cold truth
Taller than himself
And this laughter makes a fire burn in a forest

Lightning strikes an oil tanker
That later runs aground somewhere it shouldn’t
And newscasters are rushed into studios
While cameramen cry over lost loves
The break ups they endure so painfully
Caused by a long train that arrived early

And then another train derails,
A mile and a half ahead of its natural course placement,
Arriving early to the crash site
Because someone dropped change
While searching for keys
To a neighbor’s apartment

And as firecrackers explode outdoors
I know it’s a new year
Because the sound is hollow
And empty
Which leads me to believe
Time is growing as it shrinks
Because the distance is not great
But the effect is muted
As tire irons twist
In some other state
And someone watches
Driving by
Wishing they could stop
But knowing there are other places to be
And time is short