Once—

My younger vessel was

Strong in sensation and

Overbearing in thought:

My fresher self wanted

And willed, and strove, and felt

Deeply the wrongs and rights

Of the world he received.

Yet—

I found a way to fall

Without intent or thought

Inside extremes of life;

Settled in the divide

Between hostile beliefs;

Sat safe with agnostics,

Around about happy.

—And this is how—

Easily—

I wound my path toward

Tomorrow; carefully,

Counting each hour, each

Cent, with discipline, saved—

Until I had a house

In exchange for my time

And set to make it a home.

Simplistically—

It seemed to me natural

To make a home, and seek,

Concurrently, after

Truth and justice and all

The purposes that could

Proliferate beneath

An ape-like head of hair.

Imperiously—

A tree planted itself

In my garden, against

My will—and there it grew:

An echo of nature,

Dropped by a migrant bird,

Onto earth amidst a

Sullen concrete ocean.

Happily—

When I had a vast house

In exchange for my time

I knew my time had not

Been misused, for I had

The structure for a home;

I had the means, and an

Idea toward what end.

However—

A tree planted itself

Outside my house of means,

Against my vague intent;

Despite my worst instincts

I let it grow, watching

Its life spread, in fragments,

As my life gently stretched.

My planned house and rebel tree grew into a home

In which I found an acorn of happiness

And that is one way to fall

Around about happy.