Adaptive Challenge

            “…it is the responsibility of the leadership to help the team understand that change

            is a positive necessity.” (Brent Gleeson, Forbes Magazine, August 10, 2014)

Tie an anchor to your ankle if you must.

Jump in. There’s a million ways

to die.

 Here’s another: stretch out on the lawn

surrounding the memorial to every

losing side,

your very own decaying flesh in satin

envelope of emerald blades.

Death done in bunches is a covenant,

climactic and climatic.

Mud is in the forecast. Atmosphere

is pickle green and wheezy.

But!     …

 Catkins on a willow branch tremble

pleasant breath of opportunity,

 something like a blue-sky morn.

 Stone’s throw is an ocean undulating

kindness. Why not jump in there?

Two million genera

germinating second sets of lungs.

Leland Seese's poems appear in Juked, Drunk Monkeys, The Brazenhead Review, and many other journals. He and his wife live in Seattle with a revolving cast of foster, adopted, and bio children.