head or heart?

 

what am I missing?

much of who I am is of the intellect,

the sorting of the world into understandable pattern,

living the logic that is math,

for 2 + 2 = 4,

and if you're missing a "2,"

you can find it,

a potential emptiness is then filled,

that concept of discrete, logical pattern

fits with how I think,

and lets me figure,

often till I figure it out,

and suddenly the answer is obvious,

I think of every day, every reality, every problem,

as a mystery on the surface,

that a little noodling

can find what is missing,

and all clicks into sense again,

yet much of who I am is also of emotion,

roiling currents within my attitude

that can lead to exultation or despair

making it hard to figure the rhyme or reason to it all,

no easy cause and effect,

no easy answer of a number that makes

all right again with the world,

instead I feel, rather than think,

fear, or joy, grabs me

and wraps me up into itself,

I appreciate its realty even though 

my heart is harder to understand than my head,

a tear, a laugh, a sigh, a sob,

might each be the right answer

to whatever question forces itself at me now,

I yearn for the easier mystery of the missing "2."

by Henry H. Walker

May 24, ‘26