THE BATH

Archimedes noticed it centuries ago.

I slide beneath the surface.

The bath water rises.

I hope for a Eureka moment.

My head rests against the back of the tub,

Waits for a profound revelation,

Remembers Degas’s bathers.

Time-honored ideas and images

Flood the naked mind,

Wash away incongruous thoughts,

Lift off crusty scars left by the banal,

Create strong currents to carry off debris,

Crumble unstable edifices, and

Slowly seep into cerebral folds and crevices.

My submerged brain displaces the reflections

As my body displaces water,

Yet the volume of rising contemplation

Is greater than any gray matter

I can measure after the bath

With a towel wrapped around my hair

And another drying my left foot. 

©cmheuer, 2017

TRAVELOGUE

At the end of the projector’s cone of light

Wraparound panoramas and scenic drives

Whirr or click in a darkened room

Transfixing and beguiling minds with

Places our feet have touched.

We were hunter-gatherers before farmers;

Our cavernous minds followed the trails,

Gathered images and footsteps,

Placed them in our cerebral vaults,

As if they were root cellars for storing

Enough seeds, nuts, fruits, and berries,  

To generate sleep and spry animation.

Night and day revolving in

Unquestioned, perpetual motion,

Fed by endless streams of old and new

Savannahs, seashores, and mountains.

Zeal is what I remember.  Frenzied preparation.

Last minute effervescence. 

Brisk steps to secure provisions.

Unbearable anticipation of

New lands at first sight hold my breath.

Until I look farther still into

Where my feet cannot touch.

Until I see on big, wide screens

Cassini photographs of Saturn,

Curiosity’s Dunes at Ogunquit Beach, and

Juno’s Jupiter Flybys:  places that

stun my eyes and beckon my feet.

©cmheuer, 2017