Saturday, September 15, 2012

Digging our own graves

Digging our own graves                                                                  

Everyone requested an official undertaking.
We were issued shovels -- Dig your own graves.

I set diligently about my work, surprised
at the number who ignored the edict.

Or, who abandoned their shovels
at the first backache or blister;

who now pass their days idly.
Some organize workshops and lectures

on the necessity of discernment and the art
of grave-digging.  Others dutifully attend.

Distracted by perturbations, desires and moods,
I haven’t the suitable discipline for the task

and the ground thick with roots and stones,
but, my shovel seldom lies idle –

that edict is the only instruction I’ve been given
and I mean to take advantage of it.

I’ve selected a gravesite far from the commons.
There are others near me, laboring steadily –
graves tidily dug.

We are the eccentrics, our neighbors not quite
grasping the necessity and intensity of our efforts.

O child of God, work for the night is coming.
What’s left undone will be added to the morrow.

                             

No comments:

Post a Comment