can you

can you tell when the next cloud will disappear?
can you count the drops in the sea?
can you number the blades of grass
on the sweeping prairie
or the dimensions of your lover's thought?

can you box regret?
can you chain the sky?
can you sit in the core of the earth?
can you breathe the vacuum?

can you collect the petal of a flower
and simultaneously keep it alive?

can you really tell me
why she is no longer beside me

or when these tears will cease?