[The will to see oneself as fragile]

The will to see oneself as 

fragile, fallible, 

liable to fail. 



To consider a stranger and 

hear, in the mind’s ear, 

one’s true voice



insisting: I must change.

Ordinary people do this

Patient urgent work



alone and together

day upon day upon day.

Like my mother, once,



leading her ailing mother 

back through the maze 

of our suburban scrawl,



past ache, past haze, 

past confusion and rage

toward a neat room



where waited prayer,

fear, forgiveness, 

grief, grace. This



is a poem about kin 

and neighbors and nations 

adrift, in error, under siege. 



This is a ceasefire poem.