The Discipline of Craft, Easter Morning

   by Judith Harris

No use going hunting for angels,


for a Christ in the tree-mops,


a Moses winding his way up the mount
in

to the fire of God’s fresh stubble.
 

There is just a serious rain,


a steady crutch for the air,


colder than any April should be.
I am up to my neck in chores:


the cat needs more food,


my daughter’s clutter piles up like ant hills,


I fold her little sleeves, ghost by ghost.


What melody springs from the heart so well?
 

These lone trees can’t be dazzled by sun today,


they have such tremors like the Pope’s.


Lost loons pitched into sky folds,


their crusty buds just blinking
as 

if to test how fierce the light is.
 

They sag and meander from their stems,


they bleed from transparency.


Needless or hopeless, 

as overused fountains,


they are my metrics, my fortitude;


plants with lemony grass spigots


that will never go dry.

from: The Bad Secret: Poems by Judith Harris. Copyright 2005.