What Resists Illusion


The sorcerer commanded the snowman
but the snowman kept on melting

The swan remembered its ugly duckling childhood
and shook its beautiful head

The cold damp room tried to be warm on its own
but inside people shivered as if in a freezer

Mice wished they were cats as they huddled in the
walls but could still hear cat-sniffs just
inches away

The water faucet dripped like a dowager with a cold
but its silver and gold fittings couldn’t keep it from dripping

We see the world through glass the color of our hearts

How far away the mountain is by the steps
we think we’ll need to reach it

An ancient mouth speaks wise words to us under
eyes that are dazzlingly young

Though the bodies of us bend and blow away
perfection waits for us just as we are
inside the Garden Gate of blinking lights and
absolute certainties

No place is empty of His Grace

No place doesn’t even exist

A hay wagon waits under an olive tree in the sun

A white house on a hill basks in the light

Two small boys with school packs
walk through a field of grass

5/13/2004 (from Underwater Galaxies)

Categories: Poems

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