Reasons Why Not

....to crack a Walnut…                      

Of all the nuts they say

are good for you, one wins

out in front by a whisker:

Nature’s tooled Netsuke

in the shape of your brain.

You may well need

its white squiggly crunch

of protein

glazed and shining,

like a Botticelli cloud,

reined in by a husk;

yet much more than its

gonad-protecting,

memory enhancing,

artery-washing nutrients

you need the dream

of the walnut, the inside-

its-shell stage, where

a perfectly-formed

concert grand is waiting

for the femininity and lyricism

of Mitsuko Uchida.

You can't know
that that's not true:

or never have heard her play Mozart

just look a little closer

at the walnut

and see how it’s made

of two halves – a left

and a right side

you might say –

and how each is shaped

like a coracle, sailing

where two oceans meet.

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