Where’s the Circle?

by Rob Schnelle

Where’s the circle wisdom rounds for you and me?
Uneasy in mind, a park-bench lounger watching ducks
convulses from his heart’s penumbra, shining free.

A neural bleed supplies a woman’s unity,
seemingly as self-erasing as happy sex.
Where’s the circle wisdom rounds for you and me?

Inverting thoughts like neatly folded socks, we see,
delivers equanimity a midlife housewife seeks,
convulsing from her heart’s penumbra, shining free.

Eckhart, Dr. Jill, and Katie void the knee-
jerk cruelty firebrands code in Genevan creeds.
Where’s the circle wisdom rounds for you and me?

Old guys, doubtful, wave away the menu’s mingy
tray of small plates for an appetite that feeds
on shadows in the heart’s kitchen, not so free.

Does the dinner bell ring just for an aristocracy
of those by luck or talent led to cultivate seeds
that grow the oneness wisdom claims for you and me?
I peer into my heart’s penumbra, not so free.

Author’s Note:
“Eckhart, Dr. Jill, and Katie” refer to Eckhart Tolle, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, and Byron Katie.

About the Author

Rob Schnelle is the author of Valley Walking (prose) and Shiver with Me Warmly (verse). His work has appeared in Seattle Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Bellevue Literary Review, Weber Studies, Ekphrastic Review, and Shrub-Steppe Poetry Journal, among others. He is a resident of Ellensburg, Washington.