Does breath crystalize and fertilize the earth?

Is the soul really tender, breakable?

Or is it strong, strong like iron,

Able to withstand hurt?

Why do lambs cry all the time?

Why do they need the company of others

More than life itself?

Why aren’t humans like them?

Why do we move through life

Cherishing independence, reveling in the ability

To stand on one’s own two feet

Without once, just once, needing

The help of others?

Why do white swans choose the company of other white swans?

Shouldn’t a black one be equally attractive?

Or perhaps more so because of its difference?

Or is there something inside that moves one to select

Ones like itself?

What does that mean for humans?

If anything?

Why do hummingbirds’ wings beat so fast?

Is it out of fear?

Self-reliance?

Or simply because that’s the way things are meant to be?

Why do bears hibernate?

Is it the call of winter?

Something in the air tells them to hunker up,

To settle down before snows fall?

Or is it a need for deep sleep?

Why don’t people do the same?

Close windows and doors

Pull up the comforters

Turn up the heater

Stock up the cabinets

And not go outside for months?

Is it because bears are comfortable in their hides

While people need to lean on others?

People must feel, touch, hold

Cherish, react, love

While bears intrinsically know

That they are okay.

What about stones, tiny and large

Who sit alone along paths.

Do they feel alone?

Do they yearn for the weight of their kind?

Do they fear floating off into space

Unless something grounds them?

While butterflies flight about,

Seemingly without care or direction

Here, there, everywhere on a whim

Lighter than air

Stronger than a breeze

Able to withstand storms

That might send stones tumbling downhill.

So many unanswered questions

So many unanswerable questions

That change nothing

That influence nothing

Not even the beating of my heart.