USA

karren@alenier.com

FLIRTING

We are a pair
of particles flying

apart in a thought
experiment.  My reality

defines yours.  This horror
hinges on unpredictable

choices we each make
as we leave our common

center.  We defy quantum
mechanics.  We go beyond

relativity.  It's spooky
action at a distance --

that faster-than-light
message: you send me.

--Published in Quantum Tao  (Houston, Tx)

DOWN THE WORMHOLE

No
No on
No one
None on
None off

Solid
Then punched
Dark
Then light
Bright

Noon
No shadow
Midnight
No shadow
Zero

Fool
In love
Tries to travel
His universe
To hers

Black hole
Hungry
White hole
Full
Gravid star

Fool
In love
Travels to try
His universe
Through hers

No
No on
No one
None on
None off

SEDUCTION THEORY

How did the universe become
lumpy with stars, asteroids,
Mother Earth?  In those moments
before the Big Bang's burst,

a pod full of unexpected
seed, body and soul were one.
Scientists say cosmic strings
longer than time redefine gravity.

Maybe the Great Attractor, ultimate
pimp with his galaxies of hourglass
girls looking for new business,
roots out these lines that palpitate

and collide like human
hearts thumping for union.

--Published in Quantum Tao  (Houston, Tx)

TREE POSE: A MEDITATION

Robin moves us
from warrior
lunge to tree.
Unmindful
but rooted
I relive
Mr. Cooper digging
his spikes into the trunk
of our cedar. It’s fragrant
droppings clogging
the gutters and down-
spouts.
               Robin asks us to shift
left leg to right. This time I drift
back a week, watch my husband
in the rain on the roof, saw in hand,
slicing small branches from the trouble-
some pine. Jim says “don’t you want
to see the problem up close?”
                                                        Robin
reminds the class to breathe into the gut,
to maintain the balance,
to be the tree, the one
Mr. Cooper felled
in minutes

SPOKES
NINTH HEXAGRAM FROM THE I CHING

Eyes averted,
           man and wife did not speak.
                    The wheel
broken; spokes radiating
                                       in all directions.
They watched clouds gather above the western ridge.
Shadows hid like scorpions under rocks.

Listening to their neighbor’s cattle
lowing in the adjacent meadow,
she warned him to stay at home.
The rain passed, the moon dimmed.

© All Copyright, Karren Alenier.
All Rights Reserved. Printed By Permission.