direction, drive, and didn't give a damn .
Floating face to the sky on a summer lake ,
not getting anywhere fast , he called to mind
calmly the old reports of still no progress ,
and knew them true-years, years had passed ,
and here he was , the flagrant foil to their
frustrations which he could not make his own.
And there was no excuse. He hadn't been there
to watch his father running to catch that train,
only imagined the platform-edging gravel
galling the knees , the loaded briefcase tumbled ,
the fingers popping off the collar button.
Some people can't relax to save their lives .
Arching his back on water's ample roundness,
marvelling how it will just as soon uphold
a hippo or a splinter, he felt drained of weight
and curiously transparent, like a teardrop
gliding across a wide unblinking eye.
Michael Benedikt
OF MAKING LARGE DECISIONS CALMLY
(DISQUISITION AT A PICNIC)
1.
1 have noted, that many people wisely wish to
(&
do tend to)
defer making decisions of any great consequence on a
spur-of-the-moment basis; 1 know that
I
do, particularly
when it comes to
Making such decisions inside the jaws of the proverbial vice
- in effect with a gun at the back of my neck, which is when
some overly insistent yo-yo is telling me,
all
the time, "hurry up."
Making large decisions in that manner (I have concluded) is, strictly,
for the birds;
&
anyone who requires that we make such decisions ,
