by Jennifer Browne
Let there be No Scarcity of Beauty [Day 46]
“Modern economics has a particular view of scarcity, in which human beings have infinite desires, and society must therefore facilitate endless growth and consumption, irrespective of nature’s limits.” —Wennerlind and Jonsson
1.
Of infinite desire, I see only one:
only one desire, which is infinite.
2.
Open your bright eyes.
Whatever we might want,
the same end comes
for the fierce, the tender.
3.
What is there to say of beauty
but that it has sat so near to me
I have shivered from its breath.
4.
“Pick…any other word you like, as long as it is one syllable. Fasten it to your heart. Fix your mind on it permanently, so nothing can dislodge it. This word will protect you. It will be your shield and spear, whether you ride out into peace or conflict. Use it to beat on the dark cloud of unknowing above you. With it, knock down every thought and they’ll lie down under the cloud of forgetting below you. Whenever an idea interrupts, you ask, ‘What do you want?’ answer with this one word.” —The Cloud of Unknowing
5.
Too casually, I say I am afraid
that a time is coming when
there will be a dearth of beauty,
a time when concrete dust will
clot blood running in the street.
6.
We beat ourselves against
our own imperfect work
at capturing some beauty.
We come bleeding, needing
to be held to tenderness.
7.
And when our neighbors
sew their jewels into the lining
of their coats, what will we do,
we who are without jewels?
Step into the ruin of a street,
sing what songs you have into
broken windows, into a few
shell-shocked ears. No one
would name that frivolous
or call those breaths wasted.
8.
There is no scarcity of beauty.
There is no scarcity of wonder.
Sweetling, you are its deepest
well; you are its clearest water.
9.
desire (v.)—”to wish or long for, express a wish to obtain,” c. 1200, desiren, from Old French desirrer (12c.) “wish, desire, long for,” from Latin desiderare “long for, wish for; demand, expect,” the original sense perhaps being “await what the stars will bring,” from the phrase de sidere “from the stars,” from sidus (genitive sideris) “heavenly body, star, constellation”
10.
Think of desire, think of stars, and beauty appears, kissing your hair.
11.
When I woke in confusion
from deep sleep, I couldn’t
be certain I had seen a blur
of wing, an owl snatching
a bat out of the air. Still,
I feel a shimmer of wing,
can almost hear the startled
squeak. Whatever we might
feel, there is so much we
can’t know. Walk out
into this cloudless night.
Whose is the name you
whisper unto the dark?
Notes:
Wennerlind, Carl and Fredrik Albritton Jonsson. “Scarcity: A History from the Origins of Capitalism and the Climate Crisis”
The Cloud of Unknowing, Chapter 6
Etymology of desire from The Online Etymology Dictionary
Poet Jennifer Browne falls in love easily with other people’s dogs. She is the author of American Crow (Beltway Editions, 2024) and the poetry chapbooks Before: After (Pure Sleeze Press, 2025), In a Period of Absence, a Lake (Origami Poems Project, 2025), whisper song (tiny wren publishing, 2023) and The Salt of the Geologic World (Bottlecap Press, 2023). Find her work at linktr.ee/jenniferabrowne.
Artist Nuala McEvoy is an artist of English/Irish origin. She started submitting her artwork to literary magazines in 2024, and her art now appears or will appear in around fifty reviews as features or as cover art. She currently has an exhibition of 40 pieces in Cavendish Venues, London.
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