Monday, September 30, 2024

Miracles

Water ripples into wine, the mountain levitates
before hiding in the sea like a disobedient stone
reprimanded by a harsh plow.

Loaves of bread sprout from branches
and fall to the ground like so many crumbs
intended for pilgrim pigeons.

Fish jackknife from water, flopping on the ground
in consternation, coming to a quiet, heaving rest,
their eyes looking blankly at the sky

for an answer that will never come.
The paralyzed, now restored,
look like whirligigs from a carnival,

dance moves bursting from marrow
of newly-straightened bones.
The fig tree crumbles into dust,

an old woman dying because she was told she must.
What are we to make of such odd goings-on,
as if reality were nothing but a spoon-bending trick

performed by the maker of movement,
the architect of eyes?
We gaze and slap our thighs, marvel at the energy

that was coiled in everything
from the moment suns began to shine.
We return to cooking meals, building rickety barns,

and driving nails into something
we cannot possibly explain.
The lunatic in the asylum, his voice quiet now,

begins a recitation of Shakespeare.
He alone knows the meaning of magic.
He alone is wise.

~William Hammett


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