Joyriders

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

This poem last appeared on the blog in 2010 and I have been asked to repeat it today for ‘Louise P’ because, ‘I love it and it’s my birthday.  My parents as well as my two closest friends read your blog so I’d like to share it with them too as I am working away from home and have not seen them for nearly two years.’

What can I say but, it’s my pleasure Louise and here’s wishing you a very Happy Birthday!

JOYRIDERS

Crawling along a tree’s leaf,

falling among lower branches,

clambering down its trunk,

hitching a joyride on the back

of a grasshopper

Shinning down a weir’s fall,

sending ripples across a pond,

bodies into a cave

sloping down, down, towards

the earth’s axis

Balanced, oh, so precariously

on scales of well-being devised

by nature though humanity

taking credit for an improvised

morality of sorts

Voices in the head calling out

to no one in particular to explain

what humanity has against

nature giving some of us joy rides

to enlightenment

Spinning faster than a pit bull

chasing its tail to give its owner

a good laugh… until it stops,

tossing reason aside as if it were

flesh to a crocodile

Beside a weir, a fine old tree

offers joy rides on a grasshopper

to any who dare, preferring

nature’s passion to an obsession

with one upmanship

Copyright R. N. Taber 2010