Natural World

is nothing in the picture, but
you can’t see it, as there

is also nothing beyond the picture that
you can see. As you watch

the picture and begin to notice
more, the nothing grows less, but

never less than nothing. For you,
the picture has no separate

being, and, like you, the
nothing in the picture exists.

We teach a child to see a ball, a tree,
a dog, sitting at the moment.

The dog knows little of our confusion, and
calms us with her eyes.

“Once Again, in August,” a poem by Dan Gerber