Windward Review Volume 19 (2021): Empathy and Entropy

What is being forged/tempered in this crucible of flame?
Once this slow distillation comes to a halt, what and who remains
to emerge, phoenix-like, sybyl-like, from the embers and the ash?
What exactly is it that transpires, these 10,000,
These instant fires?
Who remains to seize the day?
Who will care to notice?
What of pleasure?
Of rough strife?
Finally, dear body, will this incandescence, some ten thousand little fires,
light a way onward for us ever together to cross
the darkling plains that come our way?
III.
On second thought, do everything in increments of 10,000. Build, live
through, put out 10,000 fires. Not just fires, everything. Love. Love
10,000 times. Lay your heart bare, make it vulnerable to 10,000 shocks,
10,000 heartbreaks, curl your body around your lover 10,000 times.
Know that when it rains or when you cry, the drops of rain or tears come
in parcels of 10,000, buy 10,000 umbrellas, handkerchiefs, galoshes. In
the rain, in tears, or in the tub, bathe 10,000 times. Emerge squeaky,
shiny, fresh, wrung-out, clean. If you still are dripping, use 10,000 towels.
Wash 10,000 pairs of socks, the sheets, washrags, 10,000 towels. Hang
all them out to dry under 10,000 suns, flap, flap, flapping in the breeze,
knowing that they are only tethered to this Earth by clothespins and
circumstance.
Clothespins? Circumstance? Gravity?
What is it that tethers you?
Make a pie, but don’t make one or two, just a pumpkin and/or a blueberry,
make 10,000, make every pie on Earth or, if you prefer, make the same
pie 10,000 times, the apocryphal apple everytime. Slice, slice them all,
slice them each into 10,000 slices. Eat 10,000 slices of pie, 10,000 pies,
tasting every fruit, every Eden, every crust, every bit of Earth, every sun,
every drop of dew, every juice.
Then drink. Drink tea with lemon and honey in sips of 10,000. While the
tea leaves steep, unfurling/uncurling, think 10,000 thoughts, then use
your breath, the in and the out of it all, to shoo each thought away.
Shoo, shoo, shoo …. 10,000 times until your mind for a moment rests,
untethered, unspooled, undone.
Then at 9,999 of any old thing, take that next step, then step again, slice
again, bake again, breathe again, break again, bathe/wash again, rain
and taste again, steep, sip, drink again, think again, love again, emerge
again, do it all again. Start over. Begin again.
No one’s keeping count.
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Empathy / Entropy