Together forever/free at last/sorrow remains/with the glimmering dawn/of peace

It is possible that friendship/matters most/on sunny carefree/life journeys/then again/the last walk/the last carry/the final look/touch/gaze/tear/word/at the edge/on the very edge/matters most

We gather/with one purpose/to comfort/finding there is comfort/in the closeness/engagement of contest/power/identity/we are/because of what we are and will not/be/not any other act of love diminished/the end of all this perambulation/is love

The hat seen on airplanes/through cities/and departures/arrivals/ I think once/our mothers/saw everything/under a brim/coyly glancing up/at a partially obscured/set of possible futures/on or off/I think I will take it off /and see/or on and see again/past the brim

Tomorrow/I will wear a hat in my travels/something I hardly ever do/why have an excellent hat/unused/never seen/tomorrow is an excellent day for the unseen to be seen/to get up and try/ something new

And some days/children come to church/to ask for prayer/for that which no child should suffer alone/I know for sure/we stand on Holy/ground

I stare/into my untended garden/of a morning/dappled light barely whispering the treetops/this bower encapsulating my tiny haven/when my eye spies a single leaf/floating in air/a graceful unlikely thing/full of impossibilities/slowly it twirls/disappearing on edge/tauntingly there again/as a stiff breeze shifts/the violent thread/ dances like a hanging thing/jerked and held in death/in the back of/my untended garden/it seems there is a giant sticky web/spun stealthily/to trap/those happy flitting passers by/I didn’t do it/ I cry/weakly/yet I make no move/none at all/no/none at all/ to set the captive/free

The table spread in the world/does not belong to us/it belongs to the one we follow/the one we look for/the one who forgives all/loves all/all things are ready/means hearts are ready/to love

Every beauty has a shadow/too late/ great sorrow we learn/the most hardy resilient beauty/once ruthlessly pruned/lives to blossom/riotously full of dazzling light

Our father/died an old man/surrendered/ gracefully the things he jealously acquired/suffered from exceptionally bungled palliative care/non-existent/one early Thanksgiving/the just stuffed Turkey in the oven/back curled half waking/ the call came/rushed to his still side/ear to chest listened to the sound/of cells grinding to halts/felt spirit depart/a decade later I went to his grave/laid down on the cold grass/tried to remember our fights/our putting up with each other’s differences/ kind of love/there was something there/something in the crying cold wind/something that forecast comfort/today I live far from all our graves/I visit and honor them every day/with every fearless inventory of conscience/with every considerate hospitable gesture/holding things lightly/treasuring times of presence/in the light/with that kind of love/