"Exaltation of the Moment," by Manuela

What do you see?

Take a look around:

do you see your innermost motives

set in an array of artifice and votives?

Do you see me looking at you seeing me?

See with your humanity, as if through the skin

as you careen through your busy life

on your roller coaster cart.

Cats and rats scurrying around each other

in a game of catch as catch can

like bats chasing mosquitos in the dark.

Observe your surroundings before you scuttle off

to a restaurant in the upper section of town

to meet the friend who withholds

his permission to let you mount

the clouds and soar above him

or even next to him

stop to hear the robin in the old oak overhead

before you jump into a cab without finishing your bread

What’s the rush? Just shush

the motor in your head where it hovers.

Tread gingerly, compañero,

it’s over before you remembered

to savor the moments

you can never recover