The Milk Jug Army: Human Scale

Human Scale

Sometimes,
--Wait--
Oftentimes,
I cannot comprehend
The extent of this place.

That I am astonished by
My own minuscule physicality when compared
With the likes of the Redwood or Sequoia
The Lower Falls, the Northern Lights,
Is not nearly so unbalancing to my psyche
As the notion of 80,000 job applicants
for a mere handful of vacancies.

80,000 people!?!  Imagine!
So I do.
Me, Matt, Mom, Dad, Sarah, Lisa,
Ryan, Adam, Sharon, Roger, Josh, Derek,
Val, Meagan, Hannah, Casey, Bek,
Ellen, Alex, Patrick, Abby, April,
Kelly, Brian, Steph, Keleigh, Eli...
I gather them in my mind,
One after another.

Just as when,
While a young girl,
I was told that the surge tanks in Powerhouse One
Could hold two million gallons of water.
Leaving me to envision that bordering on unfathomable
As an army of solitary gallon milk jugs,
One after another.

The relentlessly pervasive tide
--oh, the humanity--
Sweeps me off my feet,
Times Square, Balboa Park, Pike's Place
How?  Where?  Why?  When?
As I take a slow, affirming breath of fresh air,
Along with seven other souls
Per square mile.

Photos from our visit to the forests of the Pacific Northwest during Fall 2016.