These mornings
as I sit strict and reflect
in the church of austerity
in silence—the plate
invariably come around.
And each day I give
a little bit more
than I was comfortable with
the day before.
I watch my private
empty spaces get
handed off—
mingling like garden pebbles
with all the bits
of silent reticence
of the others
gathered far away
in shrines
of their own design
who are doing the same
at this moment
and feel at once
both humbled
and fortunate—
encouraged and
deeply afraid
that together we may be
repaying a debt
which is too enormous
not to exist.
