Seagull's Wings

 Seagull's Wings

 

1

After she’d set the table

the lord’s scullery

maid left for another loaf

of hard bread

pickles and frothy beet soup

on the way she found

cosmos had rooted

in the planking and the fieldstone

around her kitchen door

how long had she been setting

the table since cosmos grow

quickly in days not minutes

the slow hike to the village’s hearth

took too long or just long enough

for iris to sprout

along side the paving stones

olive trees and some honeysuckle

and heather too had formed

and flowered and by the time

she arrived at their table

her lord and his guests had gone

and a wind stirred the open

window tossed flakes

from the tablecloth

—glasses stained or shattered

bits on the floor

chairs overturned

she didn’t cry

she cleaned the remnants

all crumbs and seeds filled

seventeen baskets

but who is left to eat

outside the birds sang

the leaves rustled

and the ordinary sky, blue—what to do

what to do

to the dustbin and compost pile

seventeen trips—and the angel

with seagull’s wings overhead

his mouth of thorns

2

O, lord unbegotten, unmoved

and eternal

powerful in your laboratory

deliver us from this experiment

lord who brought together our cells

cells that began

before us in solution

and independent from each other yet you

drew them all together

as if dirt then clay

then breathed your essence

into the clay and formed

a living being

as such independent cells became

organized and teamed

so that beings

could become and drop

fruit to feed us 

3

He might say:  “Get out of my head”

or “You’re clogging my love

my mercy

what’s left of it for you”

how many times can I invade

that righteous mind

and get away

with a few good looks

at my friends or my family

from a god high

do I give them the benefit

of a doubt as he would do

or do I doubt the lord

doubt his ever living wisdom

didn’t he let my friends get away

with shenanigans in school

while those same kicks I tried

landed me in detention

that’s the lord and his point

of view—whatever I see

isn’t made for me

it’s made for him

—no that’s wrong

            that’s a lie

it’s just that I’ve been stealing

his voice and using it so badly

that I’ve become jealous

and when I look through his eyes

if I can call them eyes

this world grays

as though the mind colors

what’s before it

the random retinal patterns

the lord’s mind and my wind

making its way through one throat

my throat

thrown back on myself

the garden and the old pots

pans and grease tacky stove

and dinner table and plates

full of angel hair

all seem sprinkled with chrism

4

So all living beings

are composed of individual cells

but group together for the good of all

and all creation     thus have you spoken

in nature and revealed yourself

as the lord of all

and chief architect

of the universe as all your laws

are reflected in the laws of the universe

you are absent and unchangeable

unmoved and eternal

because the universe

begins through properties of gravity

drawn to the beauty of you

who are unmoved and yet the spur

of creation supreme

in your meditative

energy and independent of this creation

yet the impetus of everything

that exists           still you are separate

and above all sought and never found

and on the seventh day

you abstained

from your work

and blessed this day

and hallowed it as a day of pests

that sustain us

5

The friends I love

I worry them because I believe

in angels not winged ones

but free walking white

or black ones

my friends I say

think about them arm in arm

fingers twining in and out

not singing

but linking arms sometimes

if angels can have arms

mine do

what worries you I ask

but a long life or afterlife

believe it or not

with little cakes and herbal tea

brewed in the angelic sun

don’t worry

don’t worry

my life has no end

my life won’t end as long

as I long for your touch

my friends and our love

which balloons in the sky

with my angels

who thrash these clouds