THE SERMON

I am a child

in my Sunday best,

in church, in a pew

behind a woman

with a wasp on her back.

The yellow and black body

crawls on the woman's shawl

toward her neck.

Her nape, so exposed, so supple

doesn’t know what’s coming.

But I do.

Will she jump 

when it touches her flesh?

Will it sting her?

Do I want it to?

Do I know?

These thoughts 

run through me

like a venom

as the minister at the pulpit

reads the homily—his voice,

escaping from his vestments,

is a buzzing I can hardly hear.

There’s a flicker all at once

in front of me, a fluttering.

The little body

lifts and bobs, ascends.

The spindly legs

angle and dangle down.

I follow it with my eyes.

The tiny wingèd payload,

like a prayer, rises

toward the hive of light,

the hollow above our heads.

The sight of this flight

is the sermon I see.

LITTLE LUSTRES

Out of consciousness,

they arise, flicker

like fireflies from summer grasses.

Emerson called them lustres:

the moments when we catch a sudden glimpse

of our own brilliance.

These flashes—of the bards and sages

we carrying within—

are more deserving of our attention

than any firmament outside ourselves.

Grab your net, let’s head for the grasses after dusk.

Let’s go hunting and awaken to the infinite inside.

HOLLOW BONE

collagen and calcium

form around a hollow

through which

a breath is blown

may we each be

the sounding

Spirit hears

as the clarion call for change

 SOUL FOOD

Mayonnaise,

sliced banana and white bread.

A simple sandwich.

A depression-era delicacy.

A meal I make today

in homage to an ill-begotten angel.

With a heavy heart

I remove my mask,

lifting it like a curfew

that hides a riot 

and a virus inside--

a pale fragility

that plagues the soul.

On this mere morsel

I mean to feed, satisfy

an insatiable hunger

that lives within us all:

an epic appetite

for dignity and equality,

humility and humanity.

May the first bite I take 

be my prayer: that one day

what was once only “a family thing”

becomes a banquet, a moveable feast 

we all share together 

around the same healing table.