I.
The yellow lines were all the same
in that familiar parking lot,
and my mind was somewhere else
that spot,
just then,
looking up in
that direction.
What I saw was nothing strange,
but I have never seen it since.
It could have been another day.
Maybe all moments are like that.
I guess the dash lights must have faded
to the sound of jingling keys,
which turned up later in my hand
after the engine had stopped running;
and when Scott Weiland briefly paused
in the middle of "Big Empty"
back in 1994,
that was the stereo turning off.
I have mumbled with passion,
felt that song's every timbre—
traced its features since high school,
but never really known the words.
The full weight of my jaw
broke loose and fell until it stopped.
Null repetition died in silence beneath.
All the world was novelty.
All perceptions were initial.
After real-time there was nothing.
(Subsequent irony is linguistic.)
Consumed until speechless,I stared into the sky,
Nothing remained strange.
The driver's door gaped ajar.
II.
What did I witness?
Nothing worthy of note:
unfathomable beauty
of the garden variety.
(Would you say you comprehend the lilies?)
I would share what I remember,
but I can only write in English.
Here are some words that feel right;
hope you feel good about them, too:
Smoke plumes fluttered high above.
Winsome wisps suffused the breeze—
torrents of tiny specks in chorus,
each one bewinged for lack of fire.
As past and future turned to nothing,
the wind and I exchanged no words,
for none could catch that breath,
which coalesced across the blue,
flocked tether-free of a priori—nonsemantic, asyntactic—
unfettered by the importance
that hems in whole lives.
III.
Habits hurried past with purpose;
their people followed close in tow,
moved by the very syllables
that render awesome unremarkable.
What you've read is only yours.
What I can't describe is mine.
The words between apply to no one,
and convey precisely nothing.
I parked the car, looked up,
and saw a flock of birds.
Gold trophy winner
Bronze trophy winner
Silver trophy winner
Honorable mention
Adding your comment:
Gorgeous vignettes, Morgan, especially the italicized portion of the second one. Many never notice life as it surrounds them, a furious feast of sight and sound. Loved your notes, too. Well-deserving of all the shiny chalices. 
but they are appriciated nothings all the same.
