Saunter

Connection frays.  Rope bridge hanging

by a thread,  between hemispheres.

We are all groping for straws, then.  No,

there is the story the universe tells,

there is the river tumbling you

there are mountains ‘like creases in

god’s palm’.

The voice of the universe is light,

finer than silk

                  durable

nutritious as your grandmother’s blue/

berry pancakes                      masala

                           dosa

the dumplings of time.  You remember    sun

burn,

waves laughing, exultant

                                    boulders

the river touches lightly,                         great

                                             blue heron

*

durable

the boulders seem to be.  fish gather

in the cold swift pools, a

village drawing water, gods meditating, bliss

Connection frays.  Rope bridge hanging

by a thread.  And boulders tumble

and fish like refugees flee for

their lives, a village relocated.  The

blue heron

waits patiently somewhere, sheltered, hunkered down &

the brown bear, the saddhu, the snow

leopard, wait patiently, the meditating god

waits patiently.  School girls when not

harassed walk cheerfully to school.

*

Connection frays.  Rope bridge hanging

by a thread.  And boulders tumble

dislodging terraces, school houses, invasive

trout, construction crews.  Read by a

candle whether by internet illumination, teaching

today’s gospel text: love your neighbor.

You imagine in the wilderness Jesus

overhearing the approach of drones snarling

Connection frays.  Rope bridge hanging

by a thread between hemispheres.

Only the winter light only

love, fine as silk, durable ordinary

as yourself.  Joy is the

construction site, we are—laborers

*

and fish like refugees flee for

their lives, a village relocated.  The

school teacher fording swift water.

Here, today, only sunlight is

durable.

We look at the photographs taken

of white boards tumbling down

beside schools of fish, bedraggled

harassed walk cheerfully to school.

The school girls do.  drones rewrite

the curriculum of course, flash

floods rewrite the curriculum.  It  is

always about light, this teaching

we do, then, whether by

         candle whether by internet illumination, teaching