*****

Recorded Reading (2:11): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ems41gcp8mpsddutcyljs/Heaven-Before.mp3?rlkey=yzq7gb1916qc6ry6rtajkwrws&dl=0

*****

Heaven Before

When conflict calls, what do you do?
Do you e’er wish the other ill?
Yes? Know that wish come back on you
Inevitably will

Wish instead their threnody
Work unto your benefit —
Overplay their hands and be
Seen clear because of it

Wish that when they energy
Send to your demise
Their karma illustrative be
So that it make them wise

Wish that your calm statement,
Clear, their actions of
Wakes them to the difference
Between that and brotherly love

And, speak of love, wish it may walk
Into their lonely day
Changing all their hurtful talk
Reminding them of how to play

If they are so miserable
That they feel that they have to try
To feel at all amenable,
To take from you your eye ~

Realize they want that eye
Because they are blind
Do not let them take it, but
Remember to be kind

Limit yourself to clarity
Regarding each behavior
If you would fruits of victory
Eventually savor

From dispassionate declaration
Recover he can
But pause, cut short your peeved oration
Ere you call him not a man

Not companion, not a brother
Not a soul caught in travail
But some disposable other —
You then work to small avail

Call him sorrowful, confused
Bewildered and frustrated, ay
By fortune good or ill so used
He cannot loving sense now say

But as you fight survival for
Seek not to destroy him too —
All works, you do heaven before
With angels watching you

*****

Until removal of the stalker/targeter/vandal/arsonist following her allows her to approach any landlord ~ even for a private parking space ~ and to begin once again to create professional connections and begin to rebuild her life, this poet presently lives homeless and at a fraction of her nation’s poverty level ~ still working to contribute to her society, however, seven days a week.

Arts patrons may visit http://www.UgiftABLE.com , using code #72D-31S. It does take several days for the poet to be notified of your patronage.

Thank you for supporting quality in the fine arts.