Poems

The rain suddenly appears
Rips holes in her floor,
She holds on, her world is shaking,
But she is a stone. Finally
Eases down her lifeline
She takes shelter under a leaf
Takes stock of the situation,
Thinks,
I might as well go back to sleep
I will not be dining today.

I had a sense of
Someone pacing me,
Betrayed now and then
By drizzle and mist in
Meanders around town,
On the wooded path,
Along the glacial lake
To the store and back.
They preferred dusk,
The gray of almost rain,
My unseen companion.

The coat’s exhausted seams
Barely keep gusty winds at bay
This gray autumn afternoon
Momentarily startled by
Thin sunlight’s pale sky
A shadowed memory

An old expression speaks of one God,
Many paths, perhaps a solution to endless
Religious battles bounded by a single path
To God, confirmed by prophets driven
To excise or convert unbelievers.

Almost always, God forgives,
Frowns on murder, adultery and theft,
Commends charity, loves the poor
Demands parents be honored
In promises to future generations.

When we bow to God’s will, we
Bow to our common divinity,
In respectful compassion.
We bow to God, only known
Through us, our belief,

Our narrow limitations.
A tiny beacon shines
In the universal diaspora.
God’s promise to Abraham,
The child born at Christmas,

Gabriel speaks to Mohammed,
Buddha believes in everyone.
The miracle of the universe,
The miracle of the earth,
Each of us a miracle,

In an endless, unknown rush.
Yet, we die for words, pages
In books and testaments,
As the only possible truth
While each holds the answer.

this is God's kingdom
not the corporations' kingdom
not the 1%'s kingdom
not the oil companies' kingdom
this is God's earth, God's solar system, God's universe

this kingdom does not belong to humankind
it belongs to the birds of the air,
the fish of the seas,
the beasts of the fields

who knows how the treasures of Earth serve all life?
the petroleum and tar sands left by dinosaurs
by Paleozoic plants and seas
now long gone
the gases deep within hidden crevices
aquifers long unknown
left for millions of years
now tapped

dare we continue to take them
for a
couple
of
centuries
in
the
long
long
long march of history?

those before us lived
just fine
without pilfering the earth of its treasures

why not we?

this is God's kingdom
not the corporations' kingdom
not the 1%'s kingdom
not the oil companies' kingdom
not America's kingdom

this is God's kingdom
God's kingdom
God's kingdom