THE RECIPE

It is our job to engage

with everything we can,

to be in conversation with it:

the iridescence in the wood,

the snake in the road,

spring prunings,

the broken tooth,

as the stories they are,

as the legacies and recipes
of our lives,

grain for grain,

measure for measure,

scar for scar.

And along the way, if we’re lucky,

we’ll learn the things we know

we don’t know we know,

so we may carry the courage

we’re meant to carry,

build the cradles 
we were meant to build,

turn our petty thefts into gold,

our wounds into badges,      

so at the end of the day

when the scoundrels come 

for our belongings,

there will be nothing to auction

and only Stroganoff 
to feed the multitudes.