[Tony Barnstone]

Things
“Why are there beings at all instead of nothing?”
― Martin Heidegger, Being and Time

A thing, a thing, a thing, a thing, a thing:
wind maddens my hair, whiskers of ice,
panther heat of summer. What’s a being
who’s made of things to make of these things? Nice
to have a mind, to parse the alibi
of love, the grace of doves ascending, rods
of insect light in the dark wheat, the why
of all things born of nothing, as if gods
were golden trumpet songs of butterflies,
the void resolving into bells, and not
beings we dreamed to dream us up. Here lies
a phone, here books, sweatpants, a blue ink blot.
Is being behind these things? What else exists
but things, and lists of things, and lists of lists?

1) changed lies to lie for grammar
2) Changed "of insect light in the dark wheat, the why" to clarify they are fireflies; then changed it back again because of a comment (was it Matt?) that the insects had better connotations here. But changed "light" to "glowlight"…then back again
3) Changed "of it all, meaning of things," to "of nothing born as things" to address how applying meaning to things relates to question of being and nothingness.
4) Then changed it to I seek in nothingness, to make it clear I'm not truly getting behind the idea of there being a meaning beyond existence
5)...and per Matt, going back to slightly changed of nothing born as all things, as if gods, or as of all things versus nothing, as if gods -- not sure which is better, or of all things out of nothing, as if gods, or of all things versus nothing, as if gods. Or what I just changed it to, of all things born of nothing, as if gods
6) line 11 changed "invented" to "dreams" for meter
7) changed "brain" to "mind"
8) Tried to fix the lie/lies problem by changing "a phone, a book, sweatpants, a blue ink blot" to "a phone, here books, sweatpants, a blue ink blot."