2025-07-22 I Inquiry I Belonging is what we are.. I Trudy Johnston

Thanks By W. S. MERWIN Listen with the night falling we are saying thank you we are stopping on the bridges to bow from the railings we are running out of the glass rooms with our mouths full of food to look at the sky and say thank you we are standing by the water thanking it standing by the windows looking out in our directions back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging after funerals we are saying thank you after the news of the dead whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you over telephones we are saying thank you in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators remembering wars and the police at the door and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you in the banks we are saying thank you in the faces of the officials and the rich and of all who will never change we go on saying thank you thank you with the animals dying around us taking our feelings we are saying thank you with the forests falling faster than the minutes of our lives we are saying thank you with the words going out like cells of a brain with the cities growing over us we are saying thank you faster and faster with nobody listening we are saying thank you thank you we are saying and waving dark though it is "Just to be clear I don’t want to get out without a broken heart. I intend to leave this life so shattered there’s gonna have to be a thousand separate heavens for all of my flying parts." – Andrea Gibson Still The Waters run deep The stag patiently waits, perhaps a lifetime, this lifetime. steadfast he watches, Studies this floating world, steps forward The first of his kind Knowing he will Kick up a speck of dust Dips his head drinks the clear dark water his tines swirl Fugitive patterns Into the flowing river And the moon trembles Turning He disappears Trudy Johnston