Transient 

By Don Kingfisher Campbell

I've walked on the surface for so many years
Surrounded by buildings, streets and some trees.

I feel the wind on my face and arms, and wonder
What it would be like to shoot far above the land,

Cross oceans to different continents, swirl through
Hair, touch the skin of the temporary ones, move on.

Better to be a cloud, float over the checkerboard
Fall into it, get inside earth, then, thanks to the sun,

Evaporate up again, unless I am retained in a bush,
Flower because of light, age, darken, wrinkle, die.

If I could only turn into a rock, it's the closest thing
To immortality, absorb the warmth of day, coolness

Of night, watch the passing of more temporal beings,
Until the eventual utter destruction of this planet.

Or, likely, earlier, broken by earthquake, or humans
Who love, love to build structures, and pathways.

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Don Kingfisher Campbell, MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles, has taught Writers Seminar at Occidental College Upward Bound for 32 years, been a coach and judge for Poetry Out Loud, a performing poet/teacher for Red Hen Press Youth Writing Workshops, Los Angeles Area Coordinator and Board Member of California Poets In The Schools, publisher of Spectrum and the San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly, leader of the Emerging Urban Poets writing and Deep Critique workshops, organizer of the San Gabriel Valley Poetry Festival, and host of the Saturday Afternoon Poetry reading series in Pasadena, California. For awards, features, and publication credits, please go to: http://dkc1031.blogspot.com