"Aubade – The Light of What We All Are" by Oscar Houck

Aubade – The Light of What We All Are

                for the community of Wimberley,Texas

                                    

Months after the flood, dead, leafless trees

still strewn along the banks like

matchsticks from God’s careless hand.

Two children gone, disappeared.

An overturned picnic table,

a dirty pink sweater,

a mud-filled pie tin,

someone’s journal of all things,

its ghostly ink, faded black to purple, then lavender, then sky blue,

this morning’s pale blue.

Set the pages on fire and watch their

secrets rise on the smoke, which

the wind blows into thin air, into nothing.

What is it that endures?

The bright crimson flame of a cardinal

calls out right here, right here, as if to mark the spot.

And my soul can’t help but sing back softly

to the gift of the river’s rising light,

the light of what we all are.

4/13/2016