Scott Ferry

billions, garage doors, spoons of oil

“Trafficking with immensities is dangerous”
-Robbi Nester

on my way to work i see a man staring into a semi
engine with its intricacies and bulk of hoses and wires

i think i will never know the workings under this hood
behind emerald curtains under this weight of stars

i remember Carl Sagan telling me on tv
of the billions of galaxies each with a billion suns

my young brain stretching and snapping back
to a comfortable diameter and the other day

hearing Neil deGrasse Tyson explain that the tide
never “goes out” but the moon (ever since there has been

a moon and an ocean) creates a bulge in the water
around the globe which follows the moon as the earth turns

i think of Hamlet yes old Hamlet telling Horatio
about all the undreamt things in heaven and earth

i think on the parable of the boy who first walks
around the lavish castle spilling no oil from his spoon

and then at the advice of the master searches out
every fountain and statue and hanging jasmine

in the known universe and returns with no oil in his spoon
when do i have time or breath enough to stroll out

of my clay-covered mind with these precious creatures
in my care? (i just take stillframes while gripping

my camera for safety) but just this morning i couldn’t
even manage the darkness of my own enclosures

as i backed right into my closed garage door
with my son in the child seat he repeated daddy

daddy as i worked to unbend the crumpled fabric
enough for it to hide what needs to be hidden

and go forth anesthetized into the light

santa

my daughter asks me
if he is real if he is just

her mom and i and i see
the ache in her eyes

no the easter bunny
the tooth fairy no

it was you the whole time
yes we wanted you to believe

in magic how do you feel
do you feel better knowing

i ask she says yes but also
a little sad then she begins

unraveling the lies the grand
ruse i say you can't tell your

brother or your friends
i can help you she says

and now she is complicit
unmasked suddenly older

i say once you know you
can never go back

 

Scott Ferry’s most recent book is Skinless in the Cereal Aisle from Imspired Press. He helps Veterans heal as a RN in the Seattle area. More of his work can be found @ ferrypoetry.com.