My Country


At the palace a heightened alert.
It seems the enemy is everywhere.
If we are afraid,
We will stop trusting our eyes,
our steps that carry us through the day’s
rough terrain. Our hands will forget
the kingdom of touch, we’ll rein in
our voices, stop sending thoughts
that would bind us together across oceans,
beyond mountains.

But a moment can redeem us:
a dove piercing the morning air
with its hoo hoo, a pair of monarch butterflies
swooping and weaving in tremulous
foreplay, then soaring above the trees,
reminding us that we too are citizens
of the sky, the wind, the light.