–
Make Room
God said,
make room for me
in your day
that crow swooping low
as you drive to work
the trash heap
beneath the budding trees
falling-down fence
partitioning
wild from civilized
a child’s question
Mama, what does civilization mean?
Make room for me
is what I heard God say
broken glass
on pavement
emergence from caves
of safety and
the genius of survival
Make room
and don’t look too hard
or mistake the moment
when that plump robin
hops to your feet
for anything but my presence
Many poets have died
trying
and the ones who wrote
the truth of a battered
and broken world
saw the beauty, too
and knew the difference
between the act and the word
the jester and the gesture
the seamless unfolding
of one season to another
Make room
Make room
Keep your eyes open
and tell me what you see
by Jena Schwartz
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