Better Than What?

Better Than What?  

by Dane Anthony

Yesterday I found myself in a lonely state.

The first words that came to me from

the distracted conversation of the

world, were of comparison; 

leaving me dangling precariously, like a 

one-armed mountain climber, believing

that “better than” was my only available handhold.

But I sensed quickly - for which I am grateful -

that a just right-ness was also in the air; an

I'm ok with this, solely as it is floating nearby.

Tectonic pressure to improve 

is pressed on us from every direction;

a ravenous dissatisfaction that demands, 

“Everything needs to be better!”

I wonder (as I’m prone to do) 

if there really is such a thing?  

Better than what?!

Better than the trill of the Carolina Wren, 

singing unabashedly right now from the arbor?  

Better than the bucolic rise and fall

of the dog’s sleeping breath?  The black 

globes of mystery that are her eyes, 

rolled back into her interior world. 

Better than the shaft of light sliding slowly across

the warm wood grain of the floor at

three o'clock this afternoon?

Better than being greeted by the embrace 

of roasted sweet potatoes and onions,

after a day full of listening deeply 

to the robust lives of others?

I'm ok with this, solely as it is.