once i saw the sun set at ten forty-five p.m.
halfway around the globe from the carpeted stairwell where i first heard the pedestalled pigeons coo
and then again twenty years later
halfway across the infinite flatness i see lightning approach
like God
while i sat on metal porch steps and gave a wordless prayer
without blue mountains, just patchwork fields
some things never change.
beauty so humbling you'd trade your life to feel it
if anyone asked
but no one has
so you think of it as practice
for the day you will share the one thing that we all have in common
as mortals
and remember how good it feels to smile.
