All is Level

All is Level

(“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ, God has given us every spiritual blessing in heaven.” Ephesians 1:3)

All is level where the water settles, the rugged hidden,
the deeps and shallows forgotten; an alpine lake embraces
the sky, sharing and azure canvas and creating diamond flashes
just above the surface.

A doe, eyes dim, but ears taking in each change of air, stands
at the white-rock shore and dips her head to drink the offering
from the skies. The arcs from her tongue’s disturbance are
fresh strokes upon the animate display. Her young will come
within weeks behind her.

A quarry, they say it was, though I do not know from observation.

II.

Hot day, some play, we say: let’s escape.
Hard job, hopscotch, some stop at the coffee shop.

Never a day with fewer seconds,
never a minute with more ticks,
never a movement less intense,
never a meaning with more intent.

We are wrong to take it so personally,
we are right to hollow our answers into larger containers
than when we were young.

More pain, tear stains, full grain; start again.
Grown old, tales told, less bold; uncontrolled.

But we like it better that way; the big skies
without true and false answers for each question.
We stumble upon rivulets and streams while we looked for
the answers in the back of the book.

Just like meeting a doe eye to eye,
we leave our porches and are startled by life.