all the world round

you might imagine it simple

— word and world —

simple and round

easy even

but then there is this

to be “in the world and not of it”

might strike a child as absurd

would it not?

it did me

hearing rumors from an afar

about a religion i knew nothing of

apart from the consumer holiday

with “tinsel’

plastic and aluminum

hanging from the brightly lit tree

the boxes wrapped in disposable paper

suburban sidewalks

poured concrete

solidified

and make believe happiness

dabbed on like lipstick

sold door-to-door

lasts for a day

i did not know then

that world meant culture

meant system, meant

habits and ways

and that it meant — also — honey bees

chicken eggs

sunlight

house

soil

home

the great blue and green sphere

oceans and mountains

i did not know that leaving one world could

land me in another

that one world could die

and give birth to this very

world