Every generation
has its
touchstone.
In the middle of the ocean,
a huge collection of trash
amasses, and a Chinese
space station
spirals and plunges.
Scales form on the eyes so
you can no longer see what
travesties face us, can focus
on only the few inches
in front of you.
Does that tiny device enlarge
your perspective or shrink it?
You know more, but less,
without the understanding
that comes from
sitting under a tree,
counting blades of grass,
watching ants adjust their path,
observing cloud formations
change with the wind,
letting it chap your face,
your hands idle,
your mind absorbed
yet patient,
your whole self waiting
for the debris to crash
through the atmosphere
and into the very moment
when you finally relax.
Charissa Menefee is a professor in the MFA Program in Creative Writing & Environment at Iowa State University and the artistic director of The EcoTheatre Lab. Her poetry has been published in a chapbook, anthologies, and literary journals, including Pirene’s Fountain, Poetry South, Plainsongs, Poets Reading the News, Adanna, Twyckenham Notes, The Wild Word, and Footnote. She is co-editor of Embodied Playwriting: Improv and Acting Exercises for Writing and Devising.