Scratchings
Clawings
Scratchings
Clawings
Death goes on and on,
blabbing about his adventures
Like light off a river
through the beams of a bridge
I imagine Purgatory to be
a purification not by fire, but by tears –
that being the proper response
to all our failures to love
And rockets and bombs
Oh why, human heart
do you sleep on the floor?
Hey, you’re still standing aren’t you?
You’re still trying?
Maybe this was the real work, the
elbow-bent nighttime writing,
mapping the river that pierces the wood
Raven shakes needles on our table.
Cedars and starfish.
The squirrel won’t leave but he does.
You just have to let God do it through you