FREDRICK ZYDEK
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Longing for Other Meat

The children of Israel did not find in the manna all the sweetness
and strength they might have found in it; not because the manna
did not contain it, but because they longed for other meat.

                                             — St. John of the Cross

I’ve never been satisfied with just what’s
in front of me. I want to know how life
emerged in the universe, what the history
of the jungle has to do with the mind

and what walking in the world does
to the celestial machinery. I want answers
deeper than Darwin and dancers trained
to accompany the music of time surrounding

them. I want to know if fish understand
the concept of zero, why algebra is allowed
to have its way with things that start out
being unknown, and what caused the first

university. I want to know if it’s true that
orangutans and whales live out their entire
lives having no clue that without philosophy
the notion of other meat couldn’t even exist?

Walking on Stones and Thorns

Wanting to reform the world without discovering
one’s true self is like trying to cover the world
with leather to avoid the pain of walking on stones
and thorns. It is much simpler to wear shoes.

                                 — Ramana Maharashi

Some rocks are flat and smooth and as easy
to walk as well-placed stepping stones across
a country creek. Others, sharp as knives,
jagged and uneven, are as hard to navigate as
the relationship between the self and its strange
alliance with time. If only we could know things
without having to consider all the alternatives.

Sometimes I forget to think about who I am
because I get so lost in the music of everyday
speech, I don’t really hear what people are saying.
Besides, I have questions of my own: What does
believing in God mean? If Zen is mindfulness—
extracting the most from a given moment not
just in meditation but at all times—what are dreams

of the future and why do I entertain them even
while awake, trying to pilot myself from stone
to stone? If nothing on this planet is here for just
the food—what else are they doing here? I know
I’d be better off wearing shoes for the journey
but there is something to be said about going naked
through the world right down to one’s unclad toes.