A Wager
By Stan Grotegut
Early on, Pascal says,
“The sky and the birds prove God!”
So now what? To live in
Simplistic adoration?
Simplistic surrender to
The impossibility of the All.
The sky. The birds.
Dare you try? Dare you go forth
From your womb of darkness
Into the so obvious light?
You must change your
Orientation to enter into
This obvious. The poet’s firm command.
So, go out again and measure.
Calculate, weigh and
Extract. At the end you
Will find dust and decay.
Until you see the sky
And the birds. The simple fact
Of the spinning, seeking
Molecules, those miniature stars.
I get so tired of uttering
The obvious. Aren’t you
Yet ashamed of your blindnesses?
Tell me about a fly in full regalia.
Oh, you cannot! Then bow down.
Surrender. Wager the impossible.
This glorious moment of time.
This extravagant simplicity of space.
What do you have to lose?
Scales falling off your eyes?
The transformation of your heart?
The expansion of your neglected imagination?
Consciousness awakened?
Leave your isolated island.
Join the main land of now.
The sky and the birds prove God.
SDG. 7/17/2026
