Made Curious
Bruce McRae
Made Curious
I wonder about the bee’s dance
and what lives in the mud.
I wonder about good fortune
and nail-bombs hidden among flowers.
How the mind of the wolf works.
What outer space tastes like.
If a soul can be salvaged
from the weather of sin.
I wonder about life struggling
on the cold sea-bottom.
I wonder about the first Christmas.
How horses feel when racing.
The last thoughts of the condemned.
What will become of us, of me
and you and the things called human.
Glorious sunshine, raging blizzards;
and I wonder about wondering.
About the stink of the past.
How the cosmos began. Its ending.
Mind on a stick, up on a wheel,
turning and burning brightly,
my thoughts traveling to a field
in Algeria, Bolivia, Amsterdam.
Mind, pure mind, of pure thought.
Mind considering mind.
Mind wondering where evil resides.
Where the old gods have gone.
The nature of love;
that’s what I’m wondering.
I wonder what it’s like to be dead,
my personal extinction, our annihilation,
the obliteration of everything
I’ve ever thought or said or wondered.
The long haul under the ground;
I wonder about heaven and hell
and the essence of death, again.
Curious as a cat, I wonder...
And then I know.
And then I don’t know.
And then I’m certain.
Bruce McRae, a Canadian musician, is a multiple Pushcart nominee with poems published in hundreds of magazines such as Poetry, Rattle, and the North American Review. His latest book, Boxing In The Bone Orchard is available now via Frontenac House.