Why Ask Why?

by Sharon Mollerus

Why always ask why

like a petulant child?

Why question what is here:

me with you, you with me?

Why can’t it be that simple?

Do you interrogate sunlight,

question the bubbling water

of the stream, whether it’s

good to drink or splash in?

Do the pigeons wonder if

the branch will hold,

and doesn’t the cat know

I’ll feed her after a kick.

She’ll still stalk a mouse or

sleep in the corner. Why be

afraid of pauses and silences,

the measure of questions,

the span of unfurrowed lands,

the silence of rippleless waters--

you think them cursed?

It’s the very weight of

weightlessness, the gliding

of motion without friction,

the unencumbered

movement, which contains

the allness of the answer.

What set that wound to

bleeding again which sucks

the living faith

out of your heart?

 

2005