In all cases, the goal is to move past literal life into the imagination
to render the almost—to express the mysterious ambiguity that is. . .
……………………………………………….. —Nicholas Dawidoff, writer
Almost
yesterday
I walked our yard
with a grandson
who toddled beside
in a state
almost
of disequilibrium
but he tended
his balance
and stayed upright
and the walk
we walked was
almost
something which would come again
when he’d walk with
his grandson —if his days
were almost
like mine
almost as lucky
restless
reckless
full
fettered
free
almost
happy as a calm
shifty sea
full and vacant as the hole
at the center of a wheel
around which
if it were not hollow
its rim would never spin
and there’d be nothing,
including me
but nada is nothing
we can imagine
or almost
be
Jim Culleny
5/22/17