on organic

Performed at the Green Mill Poetry Slam on the date above.

Organic is not the kind of music they play in church
Organic is not the surgery where they remove your appendix
Organic isn’t even the aisle in the grocery store with the overpriced brands you don’t see commercials for

But let’s talk about organic food because it’s a digestable topic
unprocessed
untainted
preservativeless
chemicalless
food the way that owls eat food
naturally harvested
ingredients like corn, oil, salt
the ingredients on a box of raisins
is raisins
not Niacin Thiamin Polysyllabelicose Corn Syrup

Organic is the paradigm of time
the way it marchsteps through eternity
moment by moment

Organic is when she bumps into you and smiles so you ask her to coffee
organic is a missing the train hangover
organic is surprise brownies, food poisoning, make-up sex (sometimes in that order)
Organic is tornadoes and rainbows and Henry David Thoreaus
Organic is a decision that takes years
generations of child abuse
the fight for human inequality

the paradigm of time 
is moment by moment 
randomness of an uncountable number of objects
swirling together in a glorious stew

Organic is more than an orientation
it is the unshackled reality beneath the delusion of our control
it is nature free from the arrogant hands of man
it is knowing when to hold on and when to let flow in the river of life

nature is unchained, unprocessed, unpreserved
reality is not data points
the unfolding of each moment contains a mystery to be cherished
the mystery is the fruit
organic
is accepting
whatever comes next