May 17, 2020

Heart's Mission

I hope this is still a rescue mission.
       But I don't know it is.
I know hearts beat, clocks tick, earth turns,
travels, hydrogen fuses into helium,
                                                       for now.

But now becomes then before
       you know it is.
By then, will hearts still beat?
Will we have spent all the fuel to
                                                       keep pace?

In that case, we will have been in recovery
       who knows how long,
without knowing it, which is to say,
without recovering anyone whose heart
                                                       once beat.

I let my own heart beat sense
       into me, rocking me awake,
as I rock my children, slowly, into sleep:
rescue the ground, for rescue it is,
                                                       for now.