conviction

there isn’t a cliff I could be perched near
where pushing me off would be an option.

vertical maneuvers,
horizontal declines
and still, this is a rock
failing to budge.

rabbits nibble at the grass that
roots around my base.
birds peck at the sun baked, salted
pest carcasses that line my edges.
humans kick rabidly at my sides,
hoping for some sort of impact.

but I know better than to
encompass myself with easily disturbed
surroundings.

it takes eons – which in the scheme
of a 14 billion year expansion project
is fairly minimal -
to find cementation to such values.
but I had a lot of time,
reflecting so many hours
while the rest lay lingering between
R.E.M. and day and the moments scattered there.

and here, even with all the cranes of Dubai
even with the forklifts of every discount warehouse
and the pile drivers of every private road contractor
stacked up against me,
do I fail to budge, even the slightest.

conviction is that deep in these veins,
a close bond found in the physical world only
perhaps between the quarks and electrons.

no cliff would dare allow me to fall over.