Witness
I could not impel the darkness down
It would tear the shadow from my feet
shadow of havoc and grief, you hold me to this earth
or silence the soft sounds
of you turning against the bed clothes
or close my eyes
to the color red in all its startling forms
or the secret green of plants.
I must believe that my noticing
holds the slow rising airplane in the air
and wraps itself around the one
crouching there perhaps in angst
perhaps tying the shoe of a young child.
All these I must do
with all my heart
as if my life depended on it.
by Jane Ann Flint
