Today I think

Today I think

the saddest thoughts.

I weep,

and the earth weeps with me.

Fresh and salt tears drip

onto the drowned field

beyond the house.

Drip, drip.

The water level rises.

I dream an ark,

pray a miracle.

I thought all our gods

were grand-fathered in

to the long-term tenant lease

we hold with earth.

Goodbye, goodbye

my dream of garden,

my mistaken belief

in innocence.

Today I am drenched

in despair.

Mornings are silent now.

Rachel's fine-tuned ear

recognized an absence

an age ago.

hmmm, we replied

and moved along.

A few remaining crows

consign their voices

to the twilight wind:

caw, caw,

they warn.

On shadowed streets,

deep in shadowed cities,

ghosts in sandals

ply their trade,

carry bread and fruit

or endless sleep

with cautious hands.

Here or there, a coin lands,

and the giver's conscience

swells with goodness.

He turns away,

his head shaking with

"the sadness of it all'

hmmm, hmmm

Around a corner

a tower bell chimes once,

twice, three times.

We move along.

Earth continues its circuit

slowly,

round the sun.