Upon Waking
Some spirited particles take wing
won’t come back can’t
no matter how we sing out cry
Others try to make up the absence
but miss the ones that have gone
Drawn into the dew the air they call back
were always with us as it turns out entangled
so the wrenching has a purpose
dissolves a boundary that isn’t there
Heartened I’m here intact lie
beside my love who’s still asleep
inside his own particles outside
Lovely in its way this pulse
behind the left ear whispering finity
whisper so thin it’s invisible
strong as a spiderweb We’re
all caught in it like moths
Counterpoint
He’s light as feathers
If the body came into being
but when he lights on the yet-to-flower
goldenrod
because of spirit
the tall soft stem curves down
to the ground
that is a marvel
He hangs on rides the arching
over
but if spirit came into being
then flies perches on a sky-high
limb
because of the body
sings a phrase over and over Takes
wing
that is a marvel of marvels
[italics are words attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas,
tr. Marvin Meyer and Elaine Pagles]
Katrinka Moore is the author of three books—Wayfarers, Numa, and Thief—and a chapbook, This is Not a Story, winner of the New Women’s Voices Prize. Her next book, Diminuendo, comes out this summer.