1

Victory!

How sweet the sound of Victory (or was it Hope, her older sister?)

when the fever broke (briefly) as dawn approached on the fourth day.

The promise of effortless being!

The gift of taste, ebullient mingle of life-sustaining pleasures … returned.

The gift to swallow, in sweet self-absorption, like a breeze on a cool summer’s night … granted once more.

2

Did she knew her end had come when the cherries tasted bitter?

When she didn’t look up for fear that her eyes would betray her knowing?

Yet it wasn’t my time (this I knew) when Death’s invisible armies left their business card,

undismayed.

3

The body is a cave of ancient knowing.

Go deep, and deeper still, and in the darkest dark look for the light.

What hasn’t been granted can not be lost.

4

Now I have to live with the question:

What am I going to do with all this?