We Wish We Could Do That, Too

Get right next to something that’s loudly,
Actively doing nothing human,
With no loud, active humans near it—

A mountain stream if you can get one,
A rooftop cooling system maybe,
One of those hulking metal boxes,

Whirring fans and compression engines,
So long as you’re on the roof alone.
If you’re wealthy and able-bodied,

Maybe you can hike a remote cliff
Above a constantly roaring surf,
But if you’re stuck in a hostel room,

Decide which is less costly, all round,
Blasting the AC or the shower,
And then get within proximity.

Look, we know there are other issues.
Most of you live lives with most of you,
Crammed in villages or offices

Or apartment blocks or school busses.
We’re well-acquainted with hospitals,
And their relentless, slow attrition

In hives of helpless isolation.
But, if you can. If you can get right
Next to something that’s doing nothing

Human, whether human-made or not,
Just grinding along at what it does
Since all it can do is what it does,

Feel it. Let the vibrations rumble
Through you, heaped-up, multicellular
Creature you. Doesn’t it seem as if

There’s some kind of conversation there?
And yet there is no language. And yet
You give it meaning. Words envy you.