(The Ascension of a Small Songbird)
Great pelicans are lining now
Above the surf, as willets bow
And take the creatures of the sand,
As sanderlings race down the strand
The plovers gather in a crèche
But like a thing
That is one flesh,
They rise into the windy air
And fly unto, I know not where
---
The tide is high and loud, and white
And clears the footprints of the night;
The sun is trembling on the lip
Of where the waters rise and dip
(Part Two)
A songbird falls
Upon the heath
Amid the rockweed at my feet;
And I am stranded in the grace
That designates
A holy place
All things suggest calamity,
Except that she is here with me!
For though she waits upon my will,
I have God’s mercy to fulfill
I must not leave;
I shall not go;
Yet I may do no more than know
What outcome may befall this chance
That joins our lives
In circumstance:
---
I stay with her
As she may die
Or rise in glory
To the sky!
I guard the treasure of her mind
I leave her not alone behind!
---
The sanderlings race down the strand;
The gulls are huddled on the sand;
The day is crawling up the beach,
And I am counseled in the breach.
None
