INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Chris Lord
Joseph McNair
Duane Locke
Lazlo Slomovits
Alan Britt
Shutta Crum
Tolu Ogunlesi
Jerry Blanton
Paul B. Roth
Fred Wolven
Felino Soriano
Sharon E. Boyd
Joanie Freeman
Jumoke Verissimo
Running Cub
Jeanpaul Ferro
S. P. Flannery
Kristina Marie Darling
Gary Beck
Dike Okoro
Karyn M. Wolven

SO IF NOAH SENT OUT A DOVE & IT FAILED TO FIND LAND

would our world be quite exactly what it is today?
Would the red cardinal, the blue jay, the hummingbird,
the caterpillar, the garter snake, the wasp, & the dainty
butterflies all catch my eye as easy as they do now?
Or, would, do you think, such creatures only be mere
objects, mere beauty spots in our natural landscape,
those almost insignificant elements bespeckling sites,
decorating scenes, filling in voids in such handiworks?

I wonder, don't you sometimes, just how we wound up
with such as black holes in space in which there
must be whole new universes each containing yet more
such vacuums, filling outer/inner sanctums containing
yet others such as our creatures and/or perhaps even such
as we humans--life forms of some similar types, whether
moving upright or slithering along through dirt & grasses,
even inhaling, breathing in some fashion, & communicating.

Yet, if Noah hadn't sent out a dove, & if it hadn't returned
would we be able to admire the jay, hear the mockingbird,
notice the anthills & their activity?  Might we not, instead,
be without so much that we consider vital, so much that we
feel is essential, so much that we depend upon for substance,
that, although our individual lifespan may vary quite a lot,
we can develop in such ages as we are allotted, learning
& grasping, gleaming & catching nearly for full meaning.

Yes, we may, in the span provided, learn how to calculate
time, how to invent new-fangled things, & even how to figure
out philosophical solutions to complicated world problems.
One would figure, then, that, as a civilization, we could stop
killing others, cease letting people die of hunger, & find out
a means of determining the difference between good & evil.
But, dad after day, year after year, we repeat the same trials.
Unfortunately, we have yet to realize anything near utopia.

Perhaps, all we really can do is continue to imagine things
in a perfect and realistic way, things in such a manner that
it is never going to be quite possible to achieve such as one
may envision without being grounded, without being struck
down, brought down without dignity, without sufficient
concern for what our age with all its science & technology
could bring about with such concerted effort as all the media,
all the government research available, all the monies wasted

in sports, in gaming, in entertainment, in misguided efforts
to investigate the origin of auto repossession, home fore-
closures, bank fraud, or business failures.  Oh well, no one
ever said, nor even assumed that the brightest minds of MIT
or Harvard or Emory or Georgia Tech would be able to
finger the underlying causes of just why Queen Anne's Lace
is so delicate nor why the woodpecker continues to bang its
beak on the metal encased streetlamp.  So things have no

answers, nor, I suppose, should we expect that everything
is quantifiable.  But, this we do seem to know--Noah did
what he was commanded, produced what was inscribed &
so the dove always seems to appear with a branch held tight.
Yes, the dove is a symbol of peace in a peaceable kingdom.
Still, I wonder, do we know how to appreciate our world?

        

Fred Wolven, South Florida