Maybe there are small and intimate
and subtle aspects to electing presidents,
but finding them would be like searching
in the sea for a pellucid jellyfish in midst
of a tsunami: all conspires to crush
the singular: nothing, now, conduces to

the sole and vulnerable breath. However,
little in what’s happening today, tomorrow
or the next day has much chance
of changing what I see: a graceful brace
of branches with an army of attendant
yellow leaves beyond the sashes, frames

and shutters of my outer sight – which
seamlessly connects to secret windows
that afford my mind its inner light. Each
fractal surface of each fragile leaf portends
a geometric destiny: symmetrical
exactitudes of reaching out and falling in

which leave me vulnerably breathless
and as full of rich unknowing as we all
are now, and as we will be when we
know what we will know tonight.
I wonder if selecting precedents has any
lasting power to give joy or sorrow flight.

© 2008, Guy Kettelhack

Guy Kettelhack is the author and coauthor of over 30 nonfiction books. His poems have appeared widely in both online and print poetry journals, and his work has often been selected to represent the About Poetry Forum in the InterBoard Poetry Competition, where it was recognized as runner-up in May 2004 and as second place winner in November 2007 and again in May 2008. He lives very happily in New York City.

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