Profounding a Friend

We are creatures of mind
nothing human surpasses understanding
We have two requirements this way
to understand and be understood

If I behold a sunrise
the effect on my senses depends
on my reason for looking
If I am driving my car toward it
I may see it as a nuisance

In my rearview mirror
I may find it attractive
As an artist, I may put it on canvas
As a scientist, see activity on its surface

A mind seeks to know sensory input
In evening light, Spanish moss is a ghoul
In delusion, a friend’s good intentions evil
I cannot grieve over all my errors
They are too many and time moves on

Time can make discernment better
I learn and even learn to learn

Life is fraught with paradox, contradiction,
transition, -- forms of contrast
Most of what I know
I learned in the first four years of living
For from age zero to four
the contrast is nothing to something

But it doesn’t stop there
If I visit a friend at work
and hear her talking business
it might sound as gibberish

As a foreign language
I’m not stupid, she’s not super smart
but she’s in another field from me
I’m a baby to her world

Which leads to the mystery at hand

I profounded a friend
And profounding is contrast time

Profounding goes this way—

You’ve seen the gesture before
But it is done for the first time
You might have been dropped on the moon
You’re so weak in the knees
This person is brand new
Now everything done is for the first time
And the wonder of new experience
Is how it gets new attention

Understanding rarely precedes wonder
There is no way to know how to be
With this entirely new old friend
You drive in the dark
Knowing roads go somewhere

You trust your instincts
If the wheels keep rolling
And the road winding
Insight and not just a friend
May be profound

We cannot possess another
Only meaning

And surely that is enough