drunkenlibrary – Page 2 – drunken library

What Mary Oliver Said

Is the soul solid, like iron?
Or is it tender and breakable, like
the wings of a moth in the beak of the owl?

I eat these
wild red raspberries
still warm from the sun
and smelling faintly of jewelweed
in memory of my father

tucking the napkin
under his chin and bending
over an ironstone bowl
of the bright drupelets
awash in cream

my father with the sigh of a man
who has seen all and been redeemed
said time after time
as he lifted his spoon

men kill for this.

“Important encounters are planned by the souls long before the bodies see each other.”