“We are not going in circles, we are going upwards. The path is a spiral; we have already climbed many steps.” 
― Hermann Hesse

santa barbara, ca

an old man wakes this morning
just as he has every other morning
of his short life

he folds a towel over his arm
and prepares coffee before 
scuttling out to the porch

where he will sit and watch
the sun rise solemnly over the acres
of land his body has worked

every day of his life 

or is it the sun that wakes

just as it has every other morning
of this man's life and many more
who scuttles over brim of the earth

to peek at generations of fresh
eyes and withered hands and full
hearts rising to their tasks