12/26/2003

A wide spread
wing of fear
moves slightly.
More than that
would be leveling
waking me immediately
with a gasp
as if
coming back to life
a landscape of inadequacy
and failure
vivid
in every detail
stretching out before me
the muscles
in my chest
beginning to contract
involuntarily
though not as quickly
as I have become
accustomed to
a voice
observing
that’s a lot of fear
refuses to be taken in
by the suggestion
that inadequacy
and failure
are all there is
when it is clear
though barely getting by
we have been
doing so
for a million years
or more.
No face of the sacred
is so exclusive
that we can justify
closing our eyes
to the revelation
of a new beloved
when she appears.