Everything

By Cliff Lake

 

Everything

 

Half-heard conversations,

The glance to the thing unseen.

Unfamiliar gestures,

And talk of the arcane,

Ah! Sweet suspicion!

Now you know,

The things that you don’t know.

The hidden meaning in the number set,

The clouds that look too right.

The car that passes again, then again,

The man in the hat looks your way too long,

And the birds have not stopped circling all day.

Everything is everything.

Is that clover you smell?

Did the phone ring only twice?

Where is your regular mailman?

Why is this the third time you’ve heard this song?

You’ve gotten that same email,

You can’t stop thinking about that one friend,

The neighbor’s cat won’t stop staring,

And the smell only gets stronger.

It’s all happening –

Everything is everything.

The owl hoots in full day,

And a toad crawls from beneath the steps.

The pen you lost last year is on the table,

Next to three eyelashes.

The pictures on the walls tilt slightly left,

And you’ve closed the back door twice?

There’s three coffee cups in the sink,

But you’ve only had one.

And the thing is –

It’s still only Friday.

Everything is everything.

 

Cliff Lake 10/25/2024

Copyright © Clifford Lake 2024

Location: Wichita, KS, USA

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