Worth the While of Questions

the questions make it
worthwhile

why else do we
wipe our feet
on the welcome mat of
a warm sand shore

look through an ocean
of everything

waiting without taking
a step

  lest we drown in ambiguities

seeing if the distance
between the ends
has squeezed together

the back door
becomes the front door and
we pass through
an amusement park

where barkers bark
the challenge of a mental game

  step up and give the answer

we pay whatever they ask
throw whatever they place
in our hands

so we do quick calculations
and throw
and recalculate
an imagined success
and the over-sized prize
of a fuzzy bear stuffed with
every answer from
a foreign shore
while

plastic rings spin above
to and from glass bottle
to glass bottle
touching
deflecting
never choking
their empty necks

answers bounce
bounce
making a wonderful ping
ping
delighting the ears but
throw as many rings
as you like 
it's rigged
the angle's wrong
the rings are undersized
the words were poured out
before you ever got up that morning

leaving an empty space
of swarming motions

  unoccupied
  unattached

to anything that would take
the need of
our questions
away

Change

I walked in circles to the corner

to ease my pain.

Folks stared at display windows

stiff legged

looking for change.