One day,
\nin a press of bodies
\nin the outdoor stalls of Seattle,
\nthe jewel to the south, Mount Rainier,
\nwould perhaps I thought,
\nto no purpose,
\ndestroy this city,
\npick all its flowers,
\nmuddy the sound,
\nand chase the whales away.<\/p>\n
It was to no purpose
\nI saw a face look at me
\nin the crowd,
\nand feeling pass between us,
\nbetween meteors,
\ncosmic bodies,
\nshooting stars.
\nI looked back,
\nand she looked after,
\nand it was to no purpose.
\nAs if a book opened its pages,
\nand you read a story three quarters in,
\nor three quarters over,
\na paragraph and you close it,
\nnot having time to know the beginning
\nor see the end,
\nfor it served no purpose,
\nexcept a crack in your heart was opened,
\nand you never forgot,
\nor gave away a word of what you remember.<\/p>\n
I look at a map of Seattle,
\nand the sun is full of gold,
\nand the person I saw,
\nstill wanders through the market,
\nlooking back,
\nand the book is somewhere on my shelf,
\nand I can\u2019t recall the title,
\nor the number of the page
\nfortuitously opened,
\nbut I could just let it fall,
\nsomeday,
\nand continue reading.
\nBut the purpose of all this,
\nor the lack of purpose,
\nis like a jewel
\nyou cherish with remembrance.
\nIt destroys no cities.
\nIt stays where you put it,
\nin your heart,
\nthe back of a drawer,
\nwherever, if it\u2019s lost,
\nyou can find it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One day, in a press of bodies in the outdoor stalls of Seattle, the jewel to the south, Mount Rainier, would perhaps I thought, to…<\/p>\n