The world, centered in our reveries, leaps alive at the slightest suggestion of our freedom. We would bang away on the scabby shield that keeps us from the truth. Where are the guardians? It is nearly a chant we learn. Where are the guardians? Ah, they may be watching television!

The snaking weave-dance of the populace sneak into the cubby holes we have measured for special occasions. There is doubt but, as well, there is the clean disposal of their recollections. Buildings burn, babies cry, and people watch. They are astounded, nearly stunned, by the power they feel in themselves at the sight of what is holy to the people. A community of responses living in us/they disappear when we try to find them. The roar of canyons is omnipresent and is teaching us always that we exist at the end of something and at the beginning of something. We do not see the beginning but it stirs in us nonetheless. Yet, the speeches of all the great leaders of the world are posted along the valleys of the basin. Do they not have some kingly presence about them?

Looking back at youth we discover only scummy holes and faces that were once so close and intimate roll away at the first contact as though they were, all along, embarrassed by their struggles as we were in ours. Rooms that smell of used books; where the day is not complete without a walk through the neighborhood of our faltering dream. It is the place where we see ourselves for the first time hovering above the city and, then, rushing at some unimaginable speed into the depth of space. But we return still unprepared for the days tricks. We wish to see magnificent deeds enacted, we want to hear the shout that is profound. Looking back, we are a mere stick being manipulated by the power we seek to escape.

There is a stranger laying on the sidewalk that will lead to the discovery of the one possibility we deny ourselves.

However regrettable, we are the stick and perform well and feel a surge of pride. It is as though we have escaped or emerged from a tribe of people not yet categorized by the anthropologists. They chase us and yet we have resources they know nothing about.

Back to Home