Only Imagine

backlighting branches our sun moves west

I'm spotlit by the sun shining through fronds 

cedars that shade us from the westering sun

I've an audience in the shadows

I'm onstage in a spotlight

where I should not stammer 

but speak with confidence

stating: 

I am a man of honor.

My word is my bond.

So, I was raised to believe

by what I took from the library to read

now come with me 

as the sun sinks in the west 

as darkness approaches 

news from the east is all unrest

we'll find overnight hopes dashed

but I can take you to another place

we'll imagine together

only imagine

I am a man

who finds himself in the garden of Eden

able to eat from the tree of knowledge

I've come back to the garden where it all began

to find the tree stunted almost dead

poisoned by pollution

while around the tree commentators

recording its demise providing perspectives

so many accounts

to some it appears the tree is thriving 

to others it's near death's door

but for the most part it's just to keep the story going

retell the once told tale

can I tell you for a fact that I've seen it

I’ve imagined it so it might be true

but more likely it's not

for it was only a myth in the first place

but we must still save the tree of knowledge

whose roots have spread

across the Internet

somewhere in a sacred place

 it stands gnarled and reticent

guarding a few shoots with green leaves

the tree of knowledge from which all truth stems 

Dick Russell (C) Richard M. Russell

                           2024