August 10–16 ❘ Hedges
Hedges
Past performance is no guarantee
of future results.
Follow the plan, work hard,
gain assets, rack up numbers—
ten children, seven thousand sheep,
three thousand camels, one
thousand oxen, five hundred donkeys—
you’re still going lose everything
in the end.
Like Job’s household
or Prospero’s masque, everything—
possessions, family, health, even memories—
will dissolve like smoke
threading heavenward
but we are not dreams, and life
is circumscribed by more than sleep.
We are children learning
within guidelines, testing limits—
sometimes tested ourselves
when we fall just a little
outside the garden bounds.
Read more of my poetry at www.facebook.com/latterdaysaintpoetry
Contact me at merrijane.rice@gmail.com
