acme

Day 25 of the Tupelo Press 30/30 challenge is here! Today's word of the day from the NY Times is acme. Like most of us, I thought it was a made-up word that cartoonists used as a brand name for mail-order catalogs. It actually is a pretty "serious" word from Greek that means the peak of perfection. The pessimist in me sees the acme as the thing that makes all other things seem lesser-- the fastest a runner ever runs will only make all of her other runs feel slower. Or fame or fortune or acclaim. Hopefully happiness has no acme, or that it can be sustained, or that the limits are ever-expanding.

acme

what once was waiting now is punctuation. what once was silver now is rain. how quickly it changes to snow in the foothills. somewhere there are people in small sugar houses making syrup. I wonder what they say. what once was tree. what once was ice. the sugar doesn't wait for the seasons, or maybe it does. you are lighter than I wanted you to be. the blue boxes stacking up and away. quiet now. it will be spring even through snow. there will be syrup even through ice. strong-arm. the moment if flows quickest. your terrible sense of color. what once was crested now is base. I hope to see you there in the swarm of yellow daffodils. I will hold your hand like we did in the snow. you know who you are because you know who you are. quiet now. we hear it falling. we will become.