What You See Is Not What You Get

Whoever said what you see is what you get

hasn’t looked lately at night blooming flowers

or a flock of outrageous birds of paradise.

Boldness isn’t necessary a virtue.

Didn’t you learn anything in seventh grade?

The way those tallest palm trees with the slender, slender trunks

rise up out of the earth with their heads held impossibly high

suggests the need to keep some things out of easy reach.

Hiding completely, being gone, is another thing.

What is there to admire in death?

Aunt Hulah always said there was something about Uncle Woodruff

that the rest of us wouldn’t understand even if she told us

and as far as I know she never told anybody what it was.

Some things are simply not meant to be shared.

Intimacy is sometimes the spoiler of love.

But love is necessary and intimacy is inevitable.

Only rarely is a crisp, clear thing itself

as interesting as its vague shape and form.

Picasso knew a thing or two

and tried to tell us.