I fear all kinds of things, ever day. Right now, I'm afraid that somebody is going to eat the piece of cheesecake I put in the refrigerator down the hall from my university office. Later on, I'll be afraid that my students will hate me when I had back their graded papers. I'll go to bed tonight afraid that I'm going to have to drive through a snowstorm tomorrow morning.
Fear following fear following fear.
A pastor friend once told me that the opposite of faith isn't doubt. It's fear. I'm not sure what that says about me and my litany of fears.
Saint Marty just needs a little dose of faith to make it through the rest of the day. Either that or a gin and tonic.
22 from "Fall" of Yellow Dog Journal
by: Judith Minty
All day. Now night
and the sky still clear. I can see
parts of a constellation. Perhaps
it is Orion raising his sword
as leaves open tiny doorways for me.
If I were not so afraid
in the dark, tonight
I would walk to the beaver pond.
Never looking over my shoulder, just poking
down the trail, blind woman
with her stick in a world without shadows.
I would come to it on this night.
And the stars. The stars
would gleam first above me,
then reflect in the still water.
I would look down at the bear
and the dog star in Canis
and see that the pond runs deep
as the night sky. And know this.
Tonight. If I had no fear of it.
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