Do Your Part, Quietly

Robert Ronnow
Ever Maddening Mandala

Do Your Part, Quietly

These expressions of uncertainty
are emanations from sentient particles.
Being content with partial achievement
is the reward for our colossal imperfections.

Why would a protein or enzyme move to a particular promoter
on a gene? I gave up long ago on a quiet world.
At 4 a.m. taxis shoot up Sixth Avenue
like protons in a particle accelerator.

Don’t expect applause and blurbs at barbecues and birthday parties.
The reception will be cool and quiet.
You’re a light wave and a particle, a conduit for photons,
a stream of consciousness, nothing personal.

If your name is received with plaudits in the capitol
you’ll want to join a committee or a party,
be part of history, do your part.
As all art must.

There is simply no substitute for suffering.
Perhaps the dying aren’t victims
but partners to the negotiation.
It’s unquiet there, not silent.

The dead continue to party as long
as the living still remember them
but once the memory flickers out in the last
universal common ancestor, they’re done.

No participation without conflict and coercion.
Don’t be a Russian (don’t be a dilettante).
Vast army. Burdened citizens. Quiet cigarette smoker.
The last partier meanders home to bed.