Hope as a How-To Poem

We could be good in every moment.

It is a small, courageous choice

to be patient and kind. But how to do

this in the moment of chaos?

When the young man, with a gun

in his arms, walks down the middle

of the street? It is hard to prepare.

Sit softly at home, remembering.

Breathe in, breathe out. Continue

until what enters and exits the mind

is like a river, sparkling and calm.

Visit the river every day, and do

what is at hand, the daily chores,

the neighborly hello. Maybe then,

like Mary, you will see the gardener

as Jesus when he speaks. Maybe

then, when the drunk and homeless

man enters the chapel and sits down

you will go and sit beside him,

your hymnal open to the hymn

we are all singing, and share the page

with him, and he will say, “Thank you,

sister,” and now you will be his sister.

— Babs