Tuesday, January 11, 2022

COVENANT

From the sweetly obliviating 
embrace of our sleep—

from beneath 
the huge weight 
of our dream-engulfed bodies

and the pleasant completeness 
of our sense-
deprived weakness—

each morning,
we nevertheless manage 
to persist

in our rising up 
and striving toward 
uncatchable light

like the bright-eyed 
optimists 
of age-old heroic myth.

That, despite the perfection 
of dark's edgeless neglect,
 
we still willingly 
swim back to the surface 
and yearn, 

still volunteer freely 
to hunger 
and to thirst;

surely, this speaks to some
unshakable belief.

That day after day,
we still find 
that we wake 

and edge
toward the bathroom 

or the kitchen 
with a taste 

for the dully corporeal—
for anything 
at all, really:

this is our greatest profession
of faith.