Riffs

The world is riffed with images

            of thoughts refined,

     

                                    Nat Adderley's cornet

            Branching Out

                        seeking its own style

                                    like a delta of distributaries

                                                from the Mississippi.

But Branching Out is old as the oaks

            themselves.  Barn Owls

                        hesitant to fledge

                                    secure tottering

                                                near the nest.

Branching Out explains the diagrams

            of science, the flow charts of business,

                        and the linkage of computer

                                    programming,

thoughts crystalized in patterns

            that are more visual than linguistic

                        left brain cognition

                                    spawning right brain

                                                images.