recently

and so work begins again
day begins again
and the romance with which I Called
Persistence
has replaced
aching gasping admiration
and amazed knee bent humility
finding all

what is needed to heal
- wounds, bruises, blocks, toxins —
between flesh of sole
and silent constant earth
and common ground

perhaps doubt
- in god, in love, in peace, in trust —
in Us
does teach me, indeed, grace

faith
perhaps fear

in deed
does sweeten relief when comfort comes

sometimes though
I look at industrial horizon
blinking news fed
drowned sorrows
and I long to be done with my lessons.

I vow to give up sugar, pledging
this life is sweet enough

- please don’t remind me why I love
by giving me chance to hate

recently, my birds can fly
away from my bones
and to the souls I Call home
sometimes they get lost
- I’ve yet to live one perishing -
and because they allow me to inhabit their psyche
I give them the benefit of my doubts
I give them the courage of my certainty
Those birds — hawk, goose, magpie, egret, so far —
receive gifts without surprise or excitement
they never stopped being
only we are surprised by being
only we measure our being by death and abstraction
only we climb into tombs from the age of five and slowly die until we are released back into great composting nature to live again, praying, as we do
that we’ll forget our amnesia
like sages forgot their compassion
for the lowly ones
worms among us
who do nothing but eat shit
and die.