In his eighties/he stood tall/ clear eyes/and a sweeter nature/ children grown/mistakes logged/he contemplated his final sea voyage/in the muggy air/with a distinct gusto/navigated the chop and roll of age/as if the good natured joke/was known to him in secret/the joke that was on us all/a seer/as if he charted/unavoidable tragedies/around the very next corner/constrained to secrecy/eventually he’d don his slippers/and walk quietly into his end

How long/will we perpetuate/sanctify/solemnly drone/lies that sacrifice/lives created in love/to love/for love/its the lie that kills and kills and kills and kills and kills and kills and kills and kills and kills/blind to the grinding system of advantages to those who perpetuate/and explain it away/the child who played dead/escaped murder once/deserves to live to see the system of dehumanization finally die

A man who understood hard work/second surviving son/from a small poor place/raised rich in faith and knowledge/no money to go beyond seventh grade/though they could repeat it twice/and he was asked to train to be a teachers assistant to the lower grades/but he didn’t care for that/he watched the crafty work of shoemaking/his mother made all their other raiment/once a year the shoemaker came and traced their small feet/came back with precious shoes/ he chose that path/courage leading/ like it did in a far ocean journeying place/in sugar cane fields/ overseer man put gun to his head/he chose to look him in the eye/ if you think I am a chicken/ and not a man/ shoot/he chose courage/again and again and again

In his nineties/he still remembered dressing to the nines/in dementia/he still made grand gestures with a flourish/on neighborhood walks/hesitant/he would hear distant music/ insist that we dance/right there on the avenue/with a face lit up/ like 42nd street and time square/we would dance

The rain comes/tropical/storm to be feared/fooled I note with wonder/shower warm/luxuriant/makes me want fool with it/ to stand and be drenched/seep into my every crevice/as we know/the destroyer may also bring life

To the seeker/to the brave/to the shallow/to the hater/can you elevate/can you see me like God sees me/X-ray/ MRI /PET scan/CAT scan/Ultra Sound/can you see beneath/our outer skin/see how God sees who we are/imagine sloughing outer judgments/at the end of a long angry day/can you see to hold my hand as night falls

The joy of birth/the celebration of each new day/we mark with a pile of candles/they light the glorious story/of you

She loved a sunburned country/passionately/wilted at distance/thrived with every return/finally/called for her ashes to be scattered/anonymously in the bush/the bush she sang and murmured to us/sweet harsh Ned Kelly lullabies/harsh yet sweet like the beauty of the land/she went home

Small things/matter more than we realize/
small facets add up/fracture ancient light/into flashing trajectories of visible difference/we delight/and have tiny/ almost insignificant surfaces/to thank

We carry/as we were once carried/find ways to secure our young/close to our hearts/as long as ever we can/first journey to church/to spread a safe garment/under a wide tent/a moveable feast of communion/to surround their tiny wet foreheads/with light/forever