Chance: The Last Six From a Tarot

73

Let me be quick
to rise when the world
is slow, when the bird
tarries in the guava tree.

74

The women used to sit one
behind each other on the steps:
talking, cleaning lice
from their hair.

75

In town after town tonight,
streets are heavy with grief,
lined with bodies
of the drowned.

76

The moon says, I am not
a gypsy with a crystal
ball. I am not the cold
coal burning in the grate.

77

I shine my light
through every
unbearable
field.

78

Only a fool would save
the drink umbrella.
Only a fool would dance
at the brink of the world.

In response to an entry from the Morning Porch.