The Sun

There is one mind in all of us, one soul,

who parches the soil in some nations

but in others hides perpetually behind a veil;

he spills light everywhere, here he spilled

some on my tie, but it dried before dinner ended.

He is in charge of darkness also, also

in charge of crime, in charge of the imagination.

People fucking do so by flicking him

off and on, off and on, with their eyelids

as they ascertain their love's sincerity.

He makes the stars disappear, but he makes

small stars everywhere, on the hoods of cars,

in the ommatea of skyscrapers or in the eyes

of sighing lovers bored with one another.

Onto the surface of the world he stamps

all plants and animals. They are not gods

but it is he who made us worshippers of every

bramble toad, black chive we find.

In Idaho there is a desert cricket that makes

a clock-like tick-tick when he flies, but he

is not a god. The only god is the sun,

our mind, master of all crickets and clocks.