with thanks to the makers of Your Attention, Please
I go to the hillside at the end of the valley
and sit beside the gray stone with his name on it.
I am in need of deep grounding.
My beloved friend comes alongside. We sit
on the ground beside the grave, frothy white
seeds of dandelions clinging to our clothes.
We sit until the sun moves away from the valley,
climbing toward the peaks. I do not mind being sad.
Sad makes sense when I think of how any child
can no longer imagine this is a world in which
they belong. This world of green aspen leaves
and alpine snow fields and delicate dandelion fluff.
This world in which any human is made to feel
as if they are not enough. How many? And how
many more? I run my fingers through the tall
cemetery grass. How green it is. My friend
and I listen to the chaos of birdsong riffling
across the canyon. I am near destroyed
by the damn beauty of it. The tiniest drift
of cloud goes by. No, not destroyed.
Opened.
—Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
*Hey, friends, I have been going to see films at MountainFilm in Telluride this weekend, and tonight I saw such a profoundly moving, disturbing, insightful, intelligent film about the effects of social media on young people (and all of us). If you get a chance to see Your Attention, Please, it offers compelling reasons for why we might want to rethink our relationship with social media.