COMINGS and GOINGS
Betty Luceigh, Feb 12, 2015

Is it so obvious? Comings and goings?
The sun comes above eastern mountains,
goes below western.
The river comes up-valley,
goes down-valley.
I come to the kitchen for food,
go to the table to eat.

At any point in space,
many objects will come, then go,
pausing perhaps, perhaps not.
At the front door, the dog may come in,
after hesitating at the threshold,
while a fly goes out in a hurry
or a dust mote lingers midair.
Did the dog reflect on his spatial options,
the fly doubt its wings would flap?
Was the dust mote simply wandering,
not wondering at all?

Does all matter flow in sequences
of comings and goings,comings and goings,
repeated and repeated,
movements through space,
passing x,y,z-coordinates
of a secret center of all locations
on their way to somewhere called “adjacent”?

Is it not true for stardust whizzing in a galaxy
as it is for an ion passing into a cell?
And what of our thoughts, our feelings?
They, too, come, then go,
but do they pass points in space,
neuronal signals coming and going
along neurons in body locations?
Or do we call it time instead
when the experience
of changes in positions
are too complex to be identified?

Would it exist at all
if anything remained in one point of space,
stayed in the same moment,
never came or went any-where or any-when?

I really don’t know
beyond the changes of my own body and mind,
where my experiences of comings and goings
define processes I call my life,
changes in space-time, comings and goings.
Do I myself not reveal a sequence of creative events
arising from the natural expression
of the universe I am within?

And while I play
with the questions that are coming,
I have to wonder
where the answers are going!