I cannot help but weep
For those shattered
By the grief of their own
Destiny or karma
I embrace our terror
The stark hardship
Of aliveness
Which is all of us
Bountiful at times
Always sorrowful
With the forecast
Of coming and going
One day it’s starving manatees
Ancient Gentle creatures
Rooting in the sea grasses
Gorged with plastic
People of Yemen, Afganistan, Syria, Iran, iraq
Once the cradle of civilization
Now subdued by Tribal hatreds
I can not help but weep for the piles
Of violins and braids at Auschwich
Nameless remains of those incinerated --the
Horror of a final solution
Nor for dark War loads
Of America unleashing
Firebombs laced
With agent orange
Insidious masters
Of regime change
It’s always been so
Somewhere
Like yesterday’s numbing
Murders of children
I embrace you not for Grace
But the love of other
That melts the hatred
Of difference
Indifference
Come my dear ones
Let’s embrace the abject forlornness
Of our humanity, never letting go
Never giving up instead
Rest in what endures
Beyond the loneliness
Of all those places we fear to travel.
Language leaves me now
But cells remember locked
Festering at our humanity
Until we release our lack love
May 22-25 2022
Writ heart heavy at twilight
as storn clouds gather
Into the coming night on my porch
Amid pansies and chimes
