Oh Great Spirit,
maybe you have, indeed, designed
the drought,
the flood,
happiness,
the flower,
and death
as a lesson in celestial etiquette.
We cannot sacrifice—
and get results.
We cannot beg—
and get results.
We cannot even love—
and get results beyond
the self-satisfied love of loving.
We cannot—even—defy
and get results
beyond, of course, your disciplined indifference.
Best then, and only,
to go as if an animal
—small and strong—
selfish until the self intrudes
to trouble others with itself,
loving until, in love, the compromise
makes us food of others.
It’s a balance, then, you ask,
self with others, part with prudence,
or, if asking is not exactly what you do,
it’s what, through circumstance, you suggest.
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