Once a girl came knocking

Once a girl came knocking wanting

a priest but got me:

Would there be, were I to,

 

hell for my plate?

 

Who are you, why would you

ask me this thing?

 

I’m forlorn, twice gone, thrice ripped and stillborn –

and I would go.

 

Go not, promise please,

to this place that’s not there.

 

But go, she went, brief girl to the fair.

OES

This is not about what happened,

of which I have no right to speak.

It’s of reading of it in the Green Hall

psychology library, where I

checked out books – and of seeing them

in-between, the theater students in gym shoes and

flip-flops, walking up that mountain in May,

tired from the night before.

It’s about knowing first-hand how weather changes

and how big a mountain is – bigger still

when you need to get off. And not knowing,

but yes, knowing even that, how it is to be a

teacher unraveling after rational plans,

jumping up and down in the snow.

I still see at night the two lying talking

in the cave, that world of ice that keeps us warm.

I look at people and like what I see

They are chatting. He pats him

on the shoulder. He is cold.

They walk away.

She is sitting scrolling. No

one bothers her and she does not

bother them. She has many,

family and friends, who love her.

And she loves them.

People are shopping, not stealing.

They want to look good and want

something nice for their children.

They are not blowing up buildings

or running cars into people.

They are just trying their best

as almost everyone always does,

as here the frost melts

and sheep eat grass

in a place where it already has.

Who you are

You won’t be passing out stones

or scorpions or wasps on the other side

of apples. You won’t be not holding

the ladder when he climbs,

or not looking when she crosses.

You’ll not wonder when you should know,

for you’ll know, though you’d rather not.

You’ll know and do what you should do

because you are who you are,

the man, at last, you were meant to be.