To be sentenced
to a year and a day
of life
because one must
because others have tied
their lives to you
because you have
the only job

to plod forward in faith
alone
because the thing with feathers
was crushed beneath
the branches
when its perch fell

is to exist;

it is good to live once again,
to feel the soul branch out
and green,
and hear hope
chirping at the feeder
re-hung in faith.