Found alone with holes and flies
At home a Sunday morning,
Myself, alive and scratching head,
Barely awakened to the bed,
Unprepared for a new week's dawning.
I fingered through a nearby book,
Some Whitman revelations
Of beauty in our Nations
And love he had upon each look;
A children's love for lies.
As I was stretching out my limbs
My hands across my chest
The words set deep into my soul
The grasp of one who gathered whole
His people to his breast.
As naked as myself did lie
The man did bare to me
His need to shout and widely see
What shuddered my weak eye
And blocked my happy hymns.
"Life's not that sweet, no matter what,"
My coffee said to me.
A morning cup was steaming back
My normal thoughts, my usual lack
Of patriotic sympathy.
And envy grew with every sip
That I bid change to brighter sight
Of these, a people in the night
That stutter in their sinking ship
To save their humble lot.
"But they are rich and kill for greed,
You've seen the narrow way,
You've known," the coffee muttered on,
"The evils they have done."
I couldn't find the thing to say
To change that truth that seems sincere,
But then the streaking morning rays
Did end the doubts that weaken days.
I upped myself to nourish cheer,
And plant the week with healthy seed.