Knowing

Jonathan Perry

Even on a morning like this,
Crisp and bright
Like a beginning,
Air wide with birds' songs,
Traffic, and the arriving sun-
Even this morning,
With its perfect balance
Of light and shadow,
Stillness and life,
Without any particular need
To know something other than this-
There are questions.

The march of us has answered some-
First the earth,
Then the earth around the sun,
Then the sun around other suns,
And particles in the sun,
Then the particles in those particles
Around other particles,
And those around others, still,
Born from one particle,
At one point,
At one time,
In the beginning.

Even on a morning like this
There is a need to know,
Deep, unconscious,
A bird for its mate.
We cry out
In stilted song,
In whisper, shout, or plea,
The last note
Ambling out through open air.
We wait, in time,
Against odds of nature and number,
For its answer.

Some morning, perhaps,
There will be answers
To all our questions.
We will know then
All of sun and earth
And particle
And whether what we want to know
Has even been touched.