God knows I fought my own battles, made peace
with defeats and victories, wept and cheered.
A soldier without rank, I took my ease
where and when I could find it, having feared
and met the worst, and found the enemy
no braver than myself, as much in need
of saints and miracles, each pharisee
to his own convictions, though we bleed.
What headlines emphasized my days and nights
are filed within the archive of my skull,
a private record of scandals and crimes
no press would care to publish, were it called
to print even a single edition,
for the weather alone would defy all guess,
being unpredictable, rain or sun,
and variable as the heart's unrest.
Such rulings, documents, customs, arts
my life decreed, my life was witness to:
I felt, I thought, I celebrated, start
to finish, the world that entered through
these walls of flesh; and there its evidence
shall wait, in secret tissues of the bone,
until some future historian's pen
can disclose the infiniteness of One.
I THINK I AM
Being a supposition,
it is based on some ground.
As such, the connection
is important, if not profound,
because, without it,
we would no-doubt flit
as in a vacuum,
like birds,
not needing the support of words,
rising, in-fact, above them.
I protest the conclusion,
despite the evidence
that I am a valid one,
by necessity, if not consequence,
for while I argue and pursue
What I think is true,
in self-defense,
God does not suppose—
He knows—
and that makes the difference.
INSTINCT AND REASON
They would have us believe
that to defy authority
is to punish nature.
I would want to be sure