James Broughton: "Here's to It"

(A Metaphysical Drinking Song)

Here’s to that thing

we won’t admit! 

Here’s to the omnipresent

It!

Here’s to the IT

in which we sit

and stand and walk

and laugh and spit.

It’s in every act

that we commit. 

It’s our inescapable

requisite.

Here’s to the It,

our benefit

that makes the world

immediate. 

It is the cloth

most finely knit.

It’s all of a piece

but composite. 

It is the suit

with the perfect fit.

It always includes

its opposite.

It’s not the device

of a Jesuit.

It’s much older than

Holy Writ.

It’s not a mechanical

counterfeit.

It’s a metaphysical

hunting kit. 

It’s infinitely definite

and definitely infinite.

And It’s always here

so Here’s to It!

And all It says is

Submit

   to it!

                          

 

"Here's to It" by James Broughton, from Packing Up for Paradise: Selected Poems 1946-1996. © Black Sparrow Press, 1997.

Image credit: "Teenagers Contemplating Sunset," painting produced by computer software, by G.D. Zulch (originally color).