The Wild Geese

Horseback on Sunday morning, harvest over,

we taste persimmon and wild grape,

sharp sweet of summer’s end.

In time’s maze over the fall fields,

we name names that went west from here,

names that rest on graves.

We open a persimmon seed to find the tree

that stands in promise, pale, in the seed’s marrow.

Geese appear high over us, pass,

and the sky closes.

Abandon, as in love or sleep,

holds them to their way, clear, in the ancient faith:

what we need is here.

And we pray, not for new earth or heaven,

but to be quiet in heart, and in eye clear.

What we need is here.