“Small is beautiful.”
– E.F. Schumacher
“Oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!
I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!”
– Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 – 1822)
THORNS AND THISTLES
(Tyranny of Small is Irony of Big)
by mishap
i pricked my thumb
with a safety pin –
a speck of crimson
a speckle of sting
a gush of blood
a rush of pain
my thumb, now numb
i ponder
how tiny thorns
can distress as such
how little thistles
can stress as much.
(how safe are safety pins?)
– between
stress and distress
is pain.
(c) 2003 Chito L. Aguilar
Shifting Shades 