NEW EVOLUTION

We are many animals
and today I am
the rainbow trout--

prone to leap
into the air
where I'm told
I don’t belong

but when I see the sun spangling
on soft summer waters
a lightning impulse
propels me up
from my dark home--

to try to breathe what my lungs
can not yet process--
to taste a light so much richer
than the poor beams that filter
down from the surface.

When people see me
in that sudden moment
they exclaim: “Look--a rainbow!”

I’m so glad they’re glad:
I have little to offer now
but that glimpse of joy.

However,
I believe these brief leaps
prepare me for the big transition--

when I land on the bank
of a new evolution--maybe to die
in the sand, but even so, to be seen
as more than I have been--

I’m waiting for my hook
to pull me up, to serve me up--
I’m pulling for my hook

because only in full light can I have air
and sing the storm song that strums me,
surrender to an aspiration that rachets me,
and in so doing, obey an in-born desire
to be a happy sacrifice.

But until that time arrives
I’ll strengthen myself
on the worms and the flies

like any good housekeeper.

© 2008 Michael R. Patton      go back