MOTTO
(after Bertold Brecht)
After these
dark times
will we
still sing?
Yes, we
will sing.
We will sing
loudly and clearly
about these
dark times.
SOMETIMES
(in memory of my brother
Jason Gould
Sept. 15, 1959 – June 18, 2020)
Sometimes the world goes on without us.
Sometimes we are simply left
without a single word in our mouths.
Sometimes we find ourselves
standing at the window
waiting for someone who will never arrive again.
Sometimes we are the butt of the joke
and the laughs cut us to the bone
and leave us shaking with rage.
Sometimes, in our anger, we turn a color
so deep and violent
no one can even recognize us.
But sometimes we are the jokesters.
Sometimes we are the ones in control of the joke
and the jeers.
Sometimes the laughter washes over us
and leaves us standing taller than we actually were.
It is then, in that pristine moment,
that we rise,
higher and higher,
like a kite with ribbons
brighter than the day around us.
It is then that we fly so high
everyone around us loses sight of us.
And in that wonderful moment
no one will be able tell where we end
and the sky begins.
More on Jamie at http://jamieparsley.com/
Jamie Parsley
is an accomplished and award-winning poet
and Episcopal priest
He is the author of twelve books of poems, one book of short
fiction and, since 2004, has been
an Associate Poet Laureate of North Dakota.
Poems copyright © 2020 Jamie Parsley
