Читать книгу Dialogues with Rising Tides - Kelli Russell Agodon - Страница 14

Once I believed the saint I carried could keep me

safe. He lived in a rain jacket I wore

to keep out the weather and by weather,

I mean danger. Tell me a story

where no one dies. That story begins in heaven,

ends in heaven, and includes chapters

on heaven, heaven, and heaven.

It’s not really a story but a wish, or a concern.

Sometimes I wonder if there’s one moment

when no one is dying, where we all exist

on this planet without loss—

but there are too many of us

doing foolish things, someone is always sipping

the arsenic, someone is always spinning

a gun. And then

add old age, misfortune, a tree that’s leaned too long

in the forest and a family of five

headed off for a hike.

We cannot predict our tragedies.

We cannot plan a party for the apocalypse

because friends of the apocalypse know

the apocalypse always shows up

uninvited with a half-eaten bag of chips.

This is why some of us wake up

in the middle of the night looking for a saint—

and maybe your saint is a streetlight

or maybe the sea, or maybe

it’s the moment you walk out the door

and exist in the darkness,

announce to the heavens that you’re still alive.