Chiaroscuro

Finding and defining your authentic self is more important that it sounds. When we don�t define our- selves sufficiently, we allow others to define us. Is that another�s right? Are you known? � defined? Note: If you don't know what the title word means

 

Chiaroscuro

 

Do night shade

and night light

have the same ring?

Are the white rose

and the black rose

just as scintillating?

What do you prefer and

does that really mean

anything at all?

How our back-scratching,

T.V. weasel- watching

public claims to know

the innate– no– the very soul

of a group of letters

A - B - C - D

we give voice to and

call a “word”

is the real reason for road rage.

Really it is someone’s last laugh,

that a word they first said

as a joke or even  

by accident

now lives on the shelf,

in the library downtown,

in every library.                      

I ponder what will we do

when there are no

letters left to newly prescribe,

describe …

our try at getting past futility?

When we throw up our

arthritic hands to find

the same choices

are always there—

the light and dark,

opposites at times

or just the same.

And either way is fine,

if we could bring ourselves

to be

otherwise

sufficiently defined.

 

Credits: Originally published in Small Towns Are Not So Small, T. F. Rice, 2008.