Laity Lodge No. 2

I have experienced disturbing kindness.
The kind that penetrates,
keeps your dinner warm,
and reduces you to sobs and shudders.

I have seen a blind woman paint.
Cheshire smile spreading
as her tiny, delicate hand applies crimson to the canvas.

I have been adopted
by a gentle woman made of love and Russian sweet bread.

I am not an orphan anymore.

I have been heard and named: beloved.

The locomotive wind arrives,
racing through the trees like a subway car.
Rattling my bones and promising deliverance.

In the shadow of the bald Cypress,
along the craggy driftwood and gravel path,
beside little Mary’s fountain.

I once was lost but now am found
Was blind but now I see.