The Visible Vs. the Invisible

 

Vast armies of sand dunes prepare for the desert storm.

Headless vagrant bands band against hunger with no

definition on grocery shelves or grain elevators.

Schools of fish at sea bottom against the sweep of sonar.

 

Instances of the visible versus the invisible.

 

The “five colors” are visible but they blind the eyes.

Likewise, “thirty spokes has a wheel,” but it is their

disappearance that makes the wheel useful.

 

As leaves flutter, we know wind through their gaps.

As raindrops fall, they fall on palaces and vacant lots,

landing on doorknobs of silver or doorknobs of copper.

 

What’s visible can signal the coming of the invisible.

 

As History leaves temples and roads, it also leaves

subterranean songs that flow in people’s veins.

Again, the visible portends the invisible.

 

At bottom, one knows that to strike against the visible only

brings out the invisible.

Nietzsche had said, “Men are bricks for History." Some,

steppingstones; others, stumbling blocks.”

 

Some men are wise enough to withhold judgment

until the invisible becomes visible. 

 

 

Koon Woon

January 16, 2022