This Hobbled Existence

May 2006

Every now and then

I look up and out

from this hobbled existence

through a window of miracles

and glimpse:

a heron gliding by

like a grim and skinny matron

clutching her pocketbook

under a stiff wing,

or a shimmery rainbow

gossamer valentine from the deity

or the silent promise of daybreak

every day brand new upon the planet

or a patch of blue amidst gray storm clouds

or the stalwart enduring heartbeat of a thousand year old cedar

an eagle peering down from its topmost scrag

Every now and then a brand new miracle occurs:

a baby catching its first breath

utters its protesting cry

at leaving its gloried heaven

to endure this planet's pain

Each time we celebrate with joy

a new soul's journey

is beginning

once again.

Every now and then I look up

beyond the burden and the blessings

at the vast and constant sky

and remember

what I'm doing here

and why

KOSOVO~1999

My grandson, Josh~I wrote this as one grandmother to another.

Sister Refugee,

your hopeless tear-streaked face

looks out at me from my tv screen

and I recognize how easily
it might have been reversed,
I finding myself
sitting in your place.

It could so easily be me instead of you

huddled on that muddy hillside in the rain,
looking so tired and old,
so resigned and full of pain,
cradling a sleepy grandchild
against the bitter cold.

What do we know or care of politics?

Our lives are about love,
and keeping children safe.

We walk the same earth,

share the sky above,
that yours rains bombs and mine rains tears
a trick of fate
that could just as easily reverse
this time next year.

Your eyes meet mine across the miles

with bitter dread.
In the midst of all this folly
how do we keep the children fed?
How nurture the future,
how hang on to hope,
when life hangs suspended
by such a fragile thread?

We both agree

that this is not The Way,

are helpless but to endure,

having no say,
until the tide can turn
and turn once more,
tossing us up
upon a kinder shore.