Vistaprint and Nothingness

I made a postcard
at Vistaprint
which had the words
"there was a time
I was enveloped
by months of nothingness"
on the front,
and as I was
placing an order
for copies of it,
Vistaprint asked
if I would like
to automatically send
copies of the postcard
to a carefully selected
target demographic.

I paused, really,
and thought about it,
because I wondered
who they would select:
The unemployed?
Zen monks?
Hermits?
Lazy people?
Couch potatoes?
Depressed people?

Or on the sadder front,
might they go to
old people in nursing homes,
inmates on death row
or in solitary confinement?

I figured that
even if they
ended up
in the hands
of a very normal,
nice suburbanite,
it would be good
for that moment of wonder,
for that,
"what the hell is this"
look on their face.

I declined the offer,
but not before
I imagined
the postcards being delivered
to newborn babies
as a welcome
to the world.



-Jim DuBois
May 21, 2012

A Measure of What was Given

A measure of what was given
A measure of what was lost

A measure of time gone by
A measure of time going by

A measure of time
A measure of empty space

A measure of lost love
A measure of goodness

A measure of strangers on the sidewalk
A measure of words

A measure of words and meanings
A measure of mental images

A measure of days
A measure of years

A measure of what was written
A measure of what was not

A measure of something breaking
A measure of something about to break

A measure of pressure
A measure of release

A measure of things starting
A measure of those things ending



-Jim DuBois
May 13, 2012

The Inertia of Familiar Things

The inertia of familiar things
The inertia of familiar places
The inertia of familiar people

The orbits we live in
The places we stay at rest
The places we stay dormant

Dormant potential energy

The bonds we don't break
The escape velocity we usually never reach
The bubbles we live inside

The ruts we travel along
Those familiar grooves
Those familiar moves

The energy trapped in neural pathways
The memories we always revisit
The moments we repeat through time

The things we always say
The habits we learned long ago
The roads we take without thinking

Repetitive habitual energy

Time for something new

Some unfamiliar territory
Some awkward things to say
Some unpracticed words

Things we don't know how to do
Places we haven't been
Broken bonds, released energy

Dynamite in the foundation
Rocket fuel in the boosters
Fire in the neurons

A new day
A new life
New time

Now


-Jim DuBois
May 7, 2012

The White Ferret

We went out
onto my back porch
on our way to go camping,
and there was this
white ferret
kind of eagerly sniffing
around the door.
We asked at the
other apartments
if they knew
anything about it,
but we learned
nothing
so we made
a snap decision
and took it with us
on our trip.

Now it mostly rained
that trip,
and we kept the ferret
in the car,
and tried feeding it
different things.
It seemed to like
jelly the best.
It jumped around
in the car,
and slept a lot.

We found a fish-hook
and a broken-down house
up in the hills,
and made a lot of jokes
at night.

Then we left
early on sunday
in the rain,
and when we got back
discovered that
my upstairs neighbor
had owned two white ferrets
who had escaped
onto the roof.
The other one
had fallen off and died,
but ours
got to go on
a strange trip
it probably
never expected.


-Jim DuBois
March 28, 2012

not the me

I'm not the me
you used to know

I'm not the me
you're looking for

I'm not the me
I used to be


I shed my skin
I renewed my heart
I opened up
  to the world
  more than ever

Open to more goodness
Open to more sadness
  and despair
  as they flow out of me
Open to more loneliness
  and preoccupation
Open to more of myself
Open to my own power
  and attractiveness


-Jim DuBois
March 28, 2012

Oberon's Story

Oberon,
being the last and final
king of the fairies,
retained much power
and magic
that had belonged
to his ancestors,
but the world of fairy,
being so empty,
offered him little,
so he spent much time
in the human world,
where few knew
his true self,
and he often succumbed
to the old enchantments
which bound the human world
and made it plain.

Those spells
had been laid upon humans
long ago,
to confuse,
to distract,
to make them forget,
by some primal force
that not even
the lore of the fairies
knew the source of.

You would be tempted to say
these old enchantments
were powerful,
but they weren't.
They were flimsy,
but quite deceptive.
If you could
see through them,
they dispersed easily,
given time.

So Oberon's story
is one of
forgetting and remembering,
forgetting and remembering,
trying to break enchantments,
trying to use his power
to liberate
the magic of the world.


-Jim DuBois
Jan 6, 2012

Sun-tracking

Sitting in the cafe,
waiting for the sun to shift,
or shadow to cover me,
I am surrounded by
busy laptop people.

I don't think
anyone realized
I was using my teacup
and notebook
as a sun-tracker.


-Jim DuBois
Feb 20, 2012