Monday in Geneva is overcast, most likely with haze from wildfires in Canada.  The anticipated Ukrainian counter offensive has likely begun.  Reuters alone reported a press release from the Russian side.  The relative absence of information leads me to believe that engagement has begun.  No question that many are going to die.

There’s a dimension to life that is unspeakably horrific.  We are social beings, utterly dependent upon one another for language, for a cultural inheritance.  Those positives entail a darkness that is inevitable.  We are also herd animals, destined to participate in the cause and effect course of our people.

Are the actions of my nineteenth century slave-holding ancestors relevant to the texture of my life, constitutive of the events that involve me in the 21st century?  Of course what they did makes a difference…

This poem seems right:

All of Science

by Randy Cadenhead

 With apologies
to the ancients
who gave us Air,
Earth, Water, and Fire.
There are but
three elements
that form
all that is—

Matter,
Things That Don’t Matter,
and Irony,
which binds it all together
in the unending
paradox
we know
as life.

From The Funny Thing About a Poem (2019)

Randy Cadenhead is the author of a number of books of poetry and prose, most recently At Sea, about life on the water, and A Christmas Carol Refrain, which explores the later life of Ebenezer Scrooge. Although he teaches at Emory Law School, you are more likely to find Randy sailing somewhere in search of the perfect sunset. Randy lives in Decatur, Georgia; learn more about him at www.randycadenhead.com.

Thanks to Your Daily Poem for this fine poem.
https://www.yourdailypoem.com/