These two poems by KJ Hannah Greenberg suggest critical thinking can be utilized to release one from “simple muddles and complex kerfuffles.” It just must be employed…
by: KJ Hannah Greenberg
Objectivity’s Relative Worth
Upon crossing a faraway strath, the child fell. A skinned
Knee spurted innocent blood. Meanwhile, tears cascaded.
Salt rivulets formed, defrosted snow caps, ran aground.
In that land of snaw and sun, one helot’s spawn shivered.
No coin would repair his joint, nor would be realized in
Empty bags. Poverty stung more than injury’s truth, hurt
Like drowning, throbbed like a headless serpent writhing.
Meditative wisdom & internal harmony escape the lifespan
Of children who can’t sup for days, who dream of straw for
Sleep, whose clothes wouldn’t be more than tatters. When
Those innocents wander, seeking roots, fruits, or partridges
To flick with stones, they think of no topographic analyses.
Rather, edibles mosses, lichens, even early budding plants
Represent behavior measurable in survival, in existing one
More day. Caribou, even rabbits, are prizes for bigger kids.
Little sprogs must manage with bivalves, mushrooms, or
Handouts of bread, reindeer, quick death beyond slopes.
No one seeks small, hungry mouths missing for minutes. Argent Answers
All silvery-white, most elders chirped amongst themselves, while
Davits were needed to ease the youngest generation near sensible
Goals or licensed virtuosities (seldom seniors’ swaying secured.)
Alas, previously, immense numbers of beliefs, bequeathed by bosses,
Did naught other than stipulate vicarious avenues to gealed moments
(Nothing’s as powerful as intellectual middens to dispel ambiguity.)
Accordingly, vident souls grew increasingly sunk in varied experiences
(Awful involvements constituted fadoodling, erstwhile were just japes.)
No wholesome expressions nor vors aided overwhelmed, farouche men.
(Ultimately, it’s best to appreciate the wisdom granted by decades. Mainly,
Oldsters tend to cogitate ala life’s hard-earned lessons. Other persons stay
Well-advised to take notes, eschew like situations, pray gratitude. Think.)KJ Hannah Greenberg’s poetry collections are: One-Handed Pianist (Hekate Publishing, 2021, Forthcoming), Flames and Fire (Seashell Books, 2021), Rudiments (Seashell Books, 2020), The Wife/Mom (Seashell Books, 2019), Beast There—Don’t That (Fomite Press, 2019), Mothers Ought to Utter Only Niceties (Unbound CONTENT, 2017), A Grand Sociology Lesson (Lit Fest Press, 2016), Dancing with Hedgehogs (Fowlpox Press, 2014), The Little Temple of My Sleeping Bag (Dancing Girl Press, 2014), Citrus-Inspired Ceramics (Aldrich Press, 2013), Intelligence’s Vast Bonfires (Lazarus Media, 2012), Supernal Factors (The Camel Saloon Books on Blog, 2012), Fluid & Crystallized (Fowlpox Press, 2012), and A Bank Robber’s Bad Luck with His Ex-Girlfriend (Unbound CONTENT, 2011). She’s been nominated once for The Best of the Net in poetry, and three times for the Pushcart Prize in Literature for poetry.
