terrypetersen

“You can't make something true just because you really want it to be.” 
― Carlos Wallace, Life is not Complicated, You Are

Bag of Wind

Wind lifts a white plastic bag
and carries it with 
bat-swift gusts from the street 
to the branches of a tree.

The bag appears to be
moving on its own, breathing, 
mimicking a 
living creature.

An illusion. I think
about people fed
hot, even dangerous air,
led to follow the whims

of a narcissist who claims,
“I will be there,” words made of
vague promises. A breeze arrives
and lifts the bag to a sharp branch.

Misled followers leak air.
They blame enemy design.
I pray the truth saves all. 
Before the tree dies.



 poem originally published in For a Better World 2021