Author: Elizabeth Maynard

Seoul gifted soft snow
Seattle an icy baptism
onward
northward
We will cling to each other
warm and soon enough

Awake too early
and too late
now wing my way
to a land of welcome

Yesterday a wounded man
wounded me
or tried to

I was knocked breathless
for a moment
scrambled for sense

And then I remembered:
there is far more beauty for me
than this

With humility
now I can only wonder
what good is coming

We knew you were coming:
the swell of your mother's belly
announced you
but all day we buzzed
awaiting your arrival
the reminder of this great hope
a world changed

Today smile
at every one of these
like you were sent
God's own emissary
messenger
and message

Not ready to go
to stay
love or leap
further into silence
the great hum
of engines
wings lifting
from grief to grief
to life

Let death go
about her business
tidying all things
repairing every error
closing each ellipse
she is a friend to welcome
at the end of this
and every season

Now I wander
'round this room of
indeterminate purpose

When you were here
everything
knew its hows and whys

But here I am all questions
and every soft footfall
echoes your absence

What resolve required
to cross the lawn to speak to me?

I know so little
about what frightens
wakes you in a cold sweat

Memories of an enemy
speaking in an unfamiliar tongue
or your own, tied
as you find your way
through our flirtation