a country mouse in the city
we just spent a couple of days in Washington, D.C.,
and this country mouse is challenged by the city mice,
just getting there was like being swallowed by herds of lemmings,
in the continuing traffic challenges,
many of the other rodents increased their, and our, risk of accident
just to gain a few seconds to minutes of advantage
in the competitive rush forward,
on the map a great urban reality
sprawls from Washington, D.C.
through Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, into Boston,
the city mice claim a lot of space,
first it's the roads' complexity and challenge
that slaps me to deal with it,
then it's the wondrous complexity of the creation of community,
both for the body and for the soul,
the restaurants can do extraordinary work
employing many and serving up the food
that is basic to our bodies
and emblematic of appreciating others' cultures,
the intensive effort for that food
can help us immerse in the best of who we are as people,
the complexity of the needs within this urban landscape,
daunts me:
how to construct, and maintain
the neighborhoods, the cities, the larger realities
within which individuals can be held and taken care of,
allowed the freedom to be who they know themselves to be,
I am impressed by how well infrastructure has developed
to make sure vehicles can move,
toilets can be flushed,
showers can rejuvenate us,
jobs can exist,
visitors can be welcomed,
right now I'm seeing the glass as half full,
I know that I'm not seeing, and writing,
of all the emptiness that is also there,
humans are evolving to be
more of the city than of the country,
and that can scare us,
our heart craves to make sure
we don't lose who we are
when we make the world more urban,
we also want to hold on to the values within nature's world,
that grounding which has held us for so long,
I love to eat at a restaurant
that challenges me to see and feel
that difference can be delicious!
by Henry H. Walker
September 14, ‘25
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