Feather Pinball Puzzle

by Neil Flory

after all I of course don’t know all its language but tonight I do know

that the wind is fresh and alive can hear it whispering go

live be leave away with you now to whatever newness you may

find because it knows (shares) as well as we do that our general

condition tends toward a mild to thundering dissatisfaction

with the usual here wherever here may be and then some

journey and behold the old beyond becoming the new here and

finally the old here again so perhaps another journey and

somewhere there is a feather turning over and over round

and round in tonight’s same knowing wind as it drifts slowly

down and down

not much like a trapped pendulum or even a caged animal but

more like a pinball journey a wide-eyed pinball unleashed and

careening through a very large and colorful machine and stay

wide-eyed cause all those colors are part of what makes it count

because wandering is far from the worst of things and may

be not so much about figuring it out (a laugh from the audience)

but more about just making it count just making it shine wild

in such brilliance before that because even tonight’s wind knows

what’s beyond all those new and old horizons yes still knows

what will be left standing after earth and ocean are folded end on

end and all wrapped up so that 5000-piece jigsaw puzzle in your

bedroom can be seen as a quest for an answer or a quest

for exercise and yes the car can be seen as a thing meant for quick

stagnancy at destinations or still more motion and yes somewhere

tonight a pinball drifts tumbles rolls turns dodges evades

the flippers drops finally

out of sight

but not without a lot of points