Little ones want the sky
to sing to them,
the young ones want
to sing to the sky,
the middle-aged want the sky
to sing with them,
the old want the sky
to remember their song

but the everlasting song
is not of this world
nor for the people in it
though there are songs
in the trees, they are not
pitched to our hearing

everything is not a mirror
a sign, or an assemblage
of ideas in physical form,
more often than not, we do not
speak the language of the world

though we are one of the ten
thousand things, better
that the little ones sing
to the young, that the young
sing with the middle aged,
& that the old want to hear it.

About the author-

“I wrote this after reading some of the Tao and wrestling with a sense of disconnect from nature, but with optimism that we can be decent to one another, and harmonize with what is beyond our understanding.”

Max Heinegg is an English teacher, poet, journalist, rock musician, and brewer living in Medford, MA. Recent work has or will appear in Chiron Review, Stone Canoe, Misfit Magazine, The New Indendents. He recently won the 2016 Emily Stauffer Poetry Prize from Apogee magazine (Franklin College).

About the Illustrator- 

Mawia Hunter is trying to reflect the art and beauty of Africa and rebuild his past and Roots of Sudan.

Pathetic Fallacy is one of the many amazing submissions we have received so far for the second edition of the literary collection The Machinery. To submit for The Machinery-Second edition, you can go here.

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