The Moss and the Mind
how will you find the lost cities
of a forsaken species
whose theory of mind evaporated
and settled in the moss
on the topmost canopy
as the hand-held external brain
was on its way to fuse
with the organic self?
no X marks the spot
on a cartography of grief
that no Lidar technology can assist
nor myth nor storytelling
to unfurl the thread
out of the labyrinth
of our own making – us builders of cities
surrounded by the walls of our Cyclopic egos
hanging to dry on the line of progress
is the bedraggled being that emerged
we can’t tell whether
from water or land
and took to straightening
its vertebrae all the way from its sacrum
to better gaze at the sky
for a quivering point of light that night after night
would appear and move in an expected pattern
a star to which you could attach a story
or that you could connect to another
and discover a beautiful picture in your mind’s eye
that maybe others like you could see too
as you lifted your eyes from the forest floor
beyond the moss that
had settled on the topmost
canopy, a furry cover against the cold.
Benicia, Jan. 14, 2024