River rock

The Nortre Dame burns down in Paris
As ashes float to fish, embarrassed.
Air bubbles up to here,
breathed in to a sky so clear

While

Green buds from willow trees shoot down from a huge beyond and

Life, well,
It goes on as

the jagged cliffs get splashed by sea from the clouds so far above,
Wending Earth's sorrows into grooves of endless love.


And hearts will cry in silence, together,
For the loss, for change, for time,

So dense in mass around us, and noisy and sublime.

For now our steps go lightly,
But so slowly our coils wane,
These bones and buildings bind us,
but also fill our lives with shame,
To eventually float
Into a river
slowly lost into the sea
to wash upon the jagged rocks,
These future lines to be.

Hewn of limestone and of wood
And stories of both bad and good

Paris,
A new church will rise

hewn of both wood and stone
For as our mortal coils toil,
We often feel alone.

For you, the grand Architect,
The watchmaker who keeps our time,
We fumble in the darkness
And sing our hymns and rhymes.




MAS