Dogstars and the Sea

the idea
of ultimate purpose
is surely
merely
neurotic conceit

left over
from when
what we didn't know
far exceeded
what we had to know
to survive

and even then
the effort
seemed far far
to much
merely for its own sake

plus we got
these big
squishy
secreting things
up top
spewing
and figuring
and comprehending

so it's no surprise
the spaces between
here and there
and the distance
thereafter
got filled

with how special
and godlike
and front row
we just have to be

Every dog I've ever had
would lay there
fast asleep

and often as not
while doing so
woof
and move its paws
and whimper
sometimes even bark

dreaming its own
heroic tale
of dogstars
and wolfheads

while the water
in the tiny little creek
outside my son's mom's house
probably not fantasizing at all
continues it's inexorable
victory march
to the greatness
of the sea itself

the tendency
to arrogance
such notions entail
seems to run
from the taproot

informing even the smallest cell
in the skin
of the littlest toe

that the very idea
such notions are ideas at all
gives most
the shivers

and so like dogs
we whimper and move our paws
build pyramids
and shoot rockets

to the end
that heaven
eternity
immortality
meaning itself
finally rears its glorious head

and we shall then
come to know
our march to the sea
has ended