What are...?

You know those pixelated things

that look like a scrambled checkerboard,

you point your smartphone camera

at them and it takes you to somewhere

and loads up a menu or a webpage?

It’s called QR code.

They are so ubiquitous that I wondered

there must be hundreds of millions

of them, so how many unique things

is it possible to code?

I went to Google and started to type

“What are…….”

Before I finished typing, beyond “What are”,

search results appeared.

Mostly Covid-related questions

but also in the top searches:

What are capers and What are hemorrhoids?

Interesting. Is there some kind

of global connection?

So I tried a new search, again

with just open-ended “what are…”

valence electrons, primary colors,

bonds, human rights and so on.

So naturally, being the curious person I am,

I tried some other non specific queries.

“Where is….” generates these results:

where is your heart located?

where is Wendy Williams?

where is euphoria set?

where is Yellowstone filmed?

and my favorite: where is the?

where is the?

OK, how about something grander,

something more essential and eternal.

Like “What if?

Resulting in:

What if it’s us, a novel

What if God was one of us, a song

And the best one is:

Serious scientific answers

to absurd hypothetical questions.

It’s a book. And a website!

Now we’re barking up my tree!

For example:

What if I took a swim in a spent-nuclear-fuel pool?

or Could you build a jetpack using downward-firing machine guns?

What if you tried to hit a baseball pitched

at 90 percent of the speed of light?

Would a toaster still work in a freezer?

I can see that I’m not going to get much done today.

Haleakala

The road climbs like a snake

up the flank of the volcano

in the pre dawn dark.

At the summit, we join

the gathered throng,

a couple hundred strong,

draped in beach towels

and quilted snow garb.

Flip-flops, sneakers

Cargo shorts and

Patagonia fleece.

Sports team hoodies.

The crater below crowded

with cumulus clouds

hunched like an army

of monsters and giants.

A boy dressed head to toe

in blue Goretex

sleeping on the rocks,

belongs to a tour group

wearing jackets emblazoned

with an emblem and motto:

“do good have fun

save the planet”.

A sliver of sun

crests the horizon,

spears the bowl

of monsters and giants,

turning them back

into the sculpted

vapor of towering clouds.

Now is the moment

when a Hawaiian man

winds through the watchers

chanting the day

into existence. 

I think so,

it feels like that.

Like the birth

of the planet.

When God said,

let there be light.

and He saw that it was good

and He divided the light

from darkness.

The clouds are stained

with gold and fire.

Cellphones pointed

at the flaming skyscape,

we gasp and kiss

and touch each other.

The mother of the sleeping boy

laughs as she wakes him,

she doesn’t want him to miss

this beauty and glory.