Absolute Trust in the Goodness of the Earth Read Online Free PDF Page A

find
It
Again
Human
Kindness.

My Ancestors’ Earnings

My Ancestors’ Earnings
    For over a decade
My ancestors
Earned for me
Over a
Million dollars
A year.
    With our righteous loot
We bought
For me
Every house
We truly
Loved
Every car
& work
Of art in earlier times
 (Laboring, laboring
Over uncleared fields
& kitchen floors
That had no end)
Drenched in
Sweat
We were
Denied.
    Now, sated
We rest.
Looking about us
We see
We have been feeding
The little
Child
Who wanted Things
For several
Centuries
& did not
Have them.
    Wanted a mother
Separate
From her enslavement
Whether by field
Domestic service
Or her own art
    Wanted a world
Cut off
From
Its
Woes
    Wanted
In two words
Pleasure
Security.
    But now begins
The downward
Slide.
It will all
Be over
Soon
All the wanting
Of this thing
& that
That drives
This plane.
    I can let go.
    Of houses
& of cars
Of art
& of
Artifacts. No material
Object
Will seem
Of relevance
Anymore.
    I can let go!
    Free-falling into
The very
Arms
That held me as
I shopped, the very arms
That worked
The broom
The machete
& the hoe.

My Friend Yeshi
    My friend Yeshi
One of the finest
Midwives
Anywhere
Spent a whole
Season
Toward
The middle
Of her life
Wondering
What to do
With herself.
    I could not
Understand
Or even
Believe
Her quandary.
    Now
Thank goodness
She is over it.
Women come to her
Full
Babies drop
To her
Hand.
It is all
Just the way
It is.
    Sometimes
Life seizes
Up
Nothing stirs
Nothing flows
We think:
Climbing
This rough
Tree
All the time
The rope looped
Over
A rotten
Branch!
    We think:
Why did I choose
This path
Anyway?
Nothing at
The end
But sheer cliff
& rock-filled
Sea.
    We do not know
Have no clue
What more
Might come.
    It is the same
Though
With Earth:
Every day
She makes
All she can
It is all
She knows it is all
She can possibly
Do.
    And then, empty, the only
Time She is flat, She thinks: I am
Used up. It is winter all the time
Now. Nothing much to do
But self-destruct.
    But then,
In the night, in
The darkness
We love so much
She lies down
Like the rest of us
To sleep
& angels come
As they do
To us
& give her
Fresh dreams.
 (They are really always the old ones, blooming further.)
She rises, rolls over, gives herself a couple of new kinds of
grain, a few dozen unusual flowers, a playful spin on the
spider’s web called the internet.
    Who knows
Where the newness to old life
Comes from?
Suddenly
It appears.
Babies are caught by hands they assumed were always
waiting.
Ink streaks
From the
Pen
Left dusty
On
The shelf.
    This is the true wine of astonishment:
    We are not
Over
When we think
We are.

Ancestors to Alice
    Forget about trying
To keep all
The pretty houses
Going;
    These are only
The toys
We gave you
Because
In you
We felt
We deserved
To play.
    Enough. We
Have grown up
Living on
Here
In the so-called
Afterlife.
    Your true work
Is to
Remember us
To sing our names
Recount
Or even record
Our deeds
Laugh at
Our jokes.
    Your true work
Is to notice
The big feet
Of the
95-year-old
Midwife
From Alabama
To feel
In your body
How long
She has
Stood
On them.
To hold them
In your hands
Stroking &
Soothing
Until
You
Can rest.

One of the Traps
    One of the worst traps
Is finding yourself
Despising someone
Really good.
    There they are
Wearing a miniskirt
Talking dirty
But washing
The filthy
Feeding the hungry
Defending
The poor
Befriending the dead
    & all you can
Say in your
Defense
    Is
Their bleached hair
& studded
Nostril
Hardly goes
With so much
Leg.

Not Children

Not Children
    War is no
Creative response
No matter
The ignorant
Provocation
No more
Than taking
A hatchet
To your
Stepfather’s
Head
Is
Not to mention
Your husband’s.
    It is something
Pathetic
A cowardly
Servant
To base
Emotions
Too embarrassing
To be spread out
Across the
Destitute
Globe.
    The only thing
We need
Absolutely
To leave
Behind
Crying
Lonely
In
The dust.

You Can Talk
    You can talk about
The balm in Gilead
But what about
The balm
Right
Here
    What about
The healing of
The wounded heart
When someone
You