To live with reservations
Is to live in the shadows of
Reticence, circumlocutions, and
Meaning cloaked in euphemisms
To meet the world with slanted gaze
Hesitancies, second thoughts
Avoidances, and slips of tongue

To walk the world like Emerson,
Stevenson, Dickinson, or Hemingway
Is to Savour and celebrate the
Delectable incongruities of life

Not as mechanists, hard-pressed to
Reverse-engineer the magnificent
Clockwork mechanism whose cogs
Interlock in perfect synchronicity
From the pendulum in the heavens
To the vital escapement beating
In our own hearts

Abandon yourself to all that is
Of futile clinging to personal power
When a greater public power awaits
If you unlock and open your doors
And suffer the ethereal tides to
Roll over and circulate through you