August 2: Poem from "Kyrie," What If, My Neighbor

Poem from Kyrie

by:  Ellen Bryant Voigt

If doubts have wintered over in your house,
they won't go out.  The residue in the cupboard
means they've built a nest of your neglect
and fattened in it, and multiply, like mice.
Soft gray velvet scurry on the floor?
The rational cat licks a foot and looks away.
All dread passes--any harm they do
is mostly out of sight, and it's not just
your failure anyway:
                                    a plausible God
is a God of rapture, if not the falcon
at least the small decorous ribbon snake
that slept in the hay against the northern wall.
But look:  what drips like a limp Chinese moustache
at the lips of the cat coming up the cellarstairs?

___________________________________________

We all live with doubts, all our lives.  Because, as Benjamin Franklin noted, the only things that are certain are death and taxes.  Tomorrow is not a guarantee.  Certainly, next year is about as certain as a pandemic.  Last year at this time, I was contemplating choices and alternate realities.  Playing the "what if" game.  What if I had finished my doctorate?  What if I had stuck with computer programming as a career?  What if I had chosen not to live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan?  What if I wasn't a poet?  A person could "what if" her/himself to death.

Tonight, a wonderful thing happened on my street.  Something that defies all the "what ifs" in the world.  My neighbor from across the street turned 95-years-old.  She's a wonderful woman, still living by herself, but undergoing some health issues.  Yet, she's still smiling, curious, and obviously in love with life.

My neighbor's daughter and son-in-law arranged a drive by birthday parade for her.  People from my neighbor's church drove by her home at 6 p.m., honking horns, blowing kisses, dropping off birthday cards.  My family and I stood out in the mist and drizzle, shouting "Happy birthday!" to her from our sidewalk.  People came from all over the place.  Some drove over an hour to be a part of the event.

It was a wonderful celebration of a miraculous lady who has defied doubt and lived almost a full century.

And for that, Saint Marty gives thanks.