Began to Understand

Why bless the breath of life

Just to choke it away? 

Why fill us with fight,

Knowing we could never win anyway? 

Why fool us to fly, 

When all along we were falling? 

Why let us feel the sky,

Then reduce us to crawling? 

I asked these questions

Everyday

Why why why, why couldn’t he stay?

Today I trudged through trees

Of a forest nearby,

When I came to tears

For a beautiful butterfly

With colors so bright

Flew beneath a great weight,

And in a flash, out of sight…

It pained my heart like a scraping grate,

Gutting me to my core.

For an eternity I stood

Sobbing on the forest floor,

Trying to understand what could not be understood.

Next to me, I saw a green shoot

Where the old oak once stood,

Its trunk still aroot 

While it suckled from the wood. 

I saw a green barbet 

Feast on the figs

Of a tree that thanked 

Previous life for its twigs. 

Leaves juxtaposed 

Some green and some crimson,

As each sprig chose

Its own time to be risen.

As I looked back

To where the winged being lay,

It poured life right back

As its memory turned night to day. 

And so I began

To understand. 

A circle has no beginning 

And can have no end,

While there is no winning

To comprehend,

Today is the day 

I began 

To understand.