Our Daily Becoming

Like animals moving daily
through the same open field,
it should be easier to distinguish
light from dark, fabrications

from memory, rain on a sliver
of grass from dew appearing
overnight. In these moments
of desperation, a sentence

serves as a halo, the moon
hidden so the stars eclipse
our daily becoming. You think
it should be easier to define

one’s path, but with the clouds
gathering around our feet,
there’s no sense in retracing
where we’ve been or where

your tired body will carry you.
Eventually the birds become
confused and inevitable. Even our
infinite knowledge of the forecast

might make us more vulnerable
than we would be in drawn-out
ignorance. To the sun
all weeds eventually rise up.

Credit

Copyright @ 2014 by Adam Clay. Used with permission of the author. This poem appeared in Poem-a-Day on July 9, 2014.

About this Poem

“This poem examines the constant flow of information we encounter each day and what this exchange does to the mind and the way we view ourselves. As we interact with the world in a macro way, oftentimes the microscopic view gets lost in the shuffle. We don't even understand what’s right in front of us.”

—Adam Clay