why does the garden hose tangle I
never tie it in a knot I can’t even
name the complex triple boy scout
knots that my hose understands but
there I am working it backwards again
thinking about using the rake this time
to stake down its constant unruliness
and finally stop this hose from doing
what it continues to do to itself
during unseen moments of mischief
I guess I am just wondering how
this relates to the hair on my head
it doesn’t because my head has its own
million garden hoses that so rarely tie
into unworkable knots I never have to thread
my hair backwards individually with tiny
backwards hands even someone’s curly hair
is too easily combed and my question is this:
can’t we make some kind of conditioner
for untangling garden hoses
anyway the hose is straightened out
and everything around me is now a giant
knot because everywhere is a question
and in my tiny garden I wonder whether
the ease of untangling my own hair
means that there is something special going on
or am I just another form of Luck standing
with the trees and the sky and the stars all
unimaginable but there they are working
in their own gardens which makes me
wonder about God of course and then the knot
just disappears and there is no knot and I see
the whole universe is naturally untangled
and interwoven at the same time just like
total hair in every direction if that makes sense
but it shouldn’t if you know what I mean
it isn’t workable from down here the cosmic
up there but it is obviously untangled because
today came just as we expected and we do
expect a lot but there is a lot and I see that
as I continue to look up tonight from the garden
the stars are really speaking perhaps feeding
the garden while I wasn’t looking and
I can think about nothing now except
how the garden hose seems so regardless
lying there all straight and refusing to glow
– Curt Stump