Dirge without Music

I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.

- Edna St. Vincent Millay

Turbulence

Higher you climb, trouble in mind
lungs labour, heights hurl vistas
Oxygen hangs ready
overhead. In the event put on
the child's mask first. Breathe normally

- Adrienne Rich

Faith

“Faith” is a fine invention
For Gentlemen who see!
But Microscopes are prudent
In an Emergency!

- Emily Dickinson

Telling Time

My son and I walk away
from his sister’s day-old grave.
Our backs to the sun,
the forward pitch of our shadows
tells us the time.
By sweetest accident
he inclines
his shadow,
touching mine.

- Jo McDougall