a double-edge

 Imagination

what a double-edge to that word, to that sword!

start with the eternal moment,

the now that feels like it will always exist,

I see a herd of herbivores,

watch one culled out and taken by a carnivore,

then the others go back to living in the moment,

no focus on the fear of "what if. . . "

we humans are gifted with realizing we are mortal,

so we foresee when we no longer are,

how can consciousness understand its absence?

long ago we got an upgrade to our operating system, 

imagination, so that we can look forward

and create scenarios out of of possibilities,

considering death, we can continue in memory of others,

maybe still be ourselves when the transporter beams us to Heaven,

or just not exist,

the gift of this upgrade allows us story, literature,

elaborate renderings of possibility,

sometimes to enchant us,

sometimes to scare the "bejeezus" out of us,

there is an enduring feel to memory,

to the creating of story,

whether in the telling of tale

or in the retelling of one's life and work,

at the heart of all is the present moment,

and all the cusps that throb with possibility before us,

I love that we are gifted with imagination,

but I feel it can stab us

even while it makes our world deeper, larger, better.

by Henry H. Walker

May 22, ‘26