itch

i tasted water once,
was hooked like a bite, down real hard
on a watermelon jolly rancher- - -
cement holding my teeth together
stay
repair this
go that way

in light sugar heat
dying stars itch between my shoulder blades,

an out of reach place
in front of papaw and granny's country store

the molecule gossip of three old men in overalls
various shades of hear, see, and speak no evil
lined up on a rough hewn log bench

chewing on their little bits of tobacco braid
their cedar whittling sticks, pocket knives and stories- - -
my first lessons in data visualization
as problems piled up solved
at their feet

the physics of innovation and puncheon creek grand challenges
hit different in 1976

it's all snipe hum_an old psalm

tobacco spit and the weight of shaved sweet cedar
writing poetry into little piles wise
reuniting the ground with the shape of creativity

physics explains the push
but not why the push pushes back
into a cosmos that learned to scratch itself,

moved on me between push
and filled up

swapped out mystical with keeping score_