Bubble and Cows

A line of thought. What isn't?

 

Bubble and Cows

© 2008    Mark Pearce

 

Jack Johnson –

In Between Dreams –

Cut two –

“Never Know.”

 

“But after all

We’re just a bubble.”

 

Bubble.

 

Bubble.

As in

“Bubbly Toes.”

 

Bubble.

 

In the past three years

I’ve written over

Two hundred poems

And I’ve never used the word

“Bubble.”

 

Jack Johnson uses the word

Quite frequently.

Prominently too,

So it seems.

 

Using word-frequency jumbo

I’d guess the

CIA could determine

That “Never Know” was penned

By Jack Johnson.

Perhaps it’s as telling as

An un-smudged fingerprint.

 

Signature.

 

This all washes over me

As I sit on my front porch

Staring at the black-eyed susans

And purple bellflower

That punctuate my neighbor’s pasture.

 

“Bubble.”

 

Why Jack?

Why bubble?

 

Jack Johnson.

Hawiian.

Singer.

Songwriter.

Guitarist.

Videographer.

Philosopher.

Surfer.

       

“Bubble.”

 

And who am I?

 

Mark Pearce

Missourian.

Husband and father.

Announcer.

Writer.

Teacher.

Amateur lawn care technician.

Poet (questionable).

Ruralist…

 

As I walk to the edge of the pasture

To relieve the pressure in my bladder,

I think to myself

How different we are –

This Jack Johnson and me.

 

Why?

Why Jack?

Why bubble?

 

Why?

Why Mark?

Why cows?                        

Author's Note

If you read this backwards it will make little sense.

Reviews

[Emily B]

You know I absolutely have to read a poem with cow in the title. I'm thinking men aren't so different. Mostly all the men I know wander off to relieve the bladder, thinking nobody else can see them with their behind the tree. I suspect men are much the same in Hawaii and Missouri and maybe Mesopotamia, too. I had never used the word Mesopotamia in a review before so I guess we're even.

[Angel's Lady]

I love your author's note! Perfect ending! haha And, FYI, I love Jack Johnson. Try Banana Pancakes; it's wonderful! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dC-KeoegcHg

[holly]

Sort of an existential poem but the last two questions seem answerable. Why Mark? Why cows? Cows and Mark because Mark has more experience of cows than of bubbles. All the things that poets see and hear and feel go into the mix and come out as art. We can't paint cows, or sculpt them, most of us. But we've seen their placidity, their community, and their innate American regard for the moment. How can we not place them somewhere in our art. As to why is Jack Johnson the poet he is, and why are you the poet you are - it's a question we all ask ourselves. Why am I not like Rilke? I think you prove here that there is beauty in both Jack and Mark, bubbles and cows.