[The will to see oneself as fragile]

The will to see oneself as
fragile, fallible,
liable to fail.

To consider a stranger and
hear, in the mind’s ear,
one’s true voice

insisting: I must change.
Ordinary people do this
Patient urgent work

alone and together
day upon day upon day.
Like my mother, once,

leading her ailing mother
back through the maze
of our suburban scrawl,

past ache, past haze,
past confusion and rage
toward a neat room

where waited prayer,
fear, forgiveness,
grief, grace. This

is a poem about kin
and neighbors and nations
adrift, in error, under siege.

This is a ceasefire poem.