What You Are

There is a buzzing sound in the museum.
Startk neon lights, high voltage into color.
A bit of flickering. A few of the letters almost,
not quite, dark.

“The Future will be Confusing.”
Kind of a “duh”, and yet we crave something else,
something simpler. Something understandable.
You wonder

at the idea of the sign in a museum,
a place that looks back and wonder If the artist
can see around corners or simply records the confusion
for posterity.

The words feel too much like truth.
It could be your autobiography,
the myth of thinking the things you learn
are ever enough

to understand. To know.

The neon letters buzz. It is a bit nostalgic
and a bit annoying up close. You are uncertain
whether you are ready to turn the corner.
Will it inspire? Will it frighten?

There’s elements of both in your futures.
The ones ahead and the ones you have lived through.
The one you are living through.
Unexpected,

and yet, here you are. Living something new
again. In the midst of it, reminded of your greatest strength,
the knack of walking in fog. Figuring it out as you go,
the ability to get back up

again and again and yet again.
Yes, the future will be confusing. Noisy. Dark.
and you will be tempted to be afraid
you will survive the next one.

But
you have
and you will.
It’s what you do,
It’s what you are.

About this poem.

The picture was taken at Mass MoCA (Mass Museum of Contemporary Art) six years or so ago. It has haunted me ever since. Popping into mind when things get confusing, which is much of the time. And certainly in the times we are living now.

Tom