A Poem by John Kross

Certainty

I saw an old blue jay today
unashamed of his baldness.
His beautiful crown reduced
to wispy sprouts of gray,
every which way like
a patient after chemo.
Beauty cannot exist
without suffering.

I saw Lola's kits yesterday,
they looked like little piglets
nestled in her nest of fur and hay,
their plump and tender bodies
fragile feasts for
creatures of the night.
Peace cannot exist
without fear.

I saw a hummingbird this morning
and heard her vibrating chirp.
Anxious and afraid she
bobbed and dipped for sustenance
a thousand miles from home
like a prisoner of war.
Home cannot exist
without loneliness.

I see an orangey moon tonight
pierced across the breast by clouds,
in halves instead of whole.
A symbol of the way things are,
a broken world that
no one seems to notice.
Consciousness cannot exist
without ignorance.

I looked in your eyes just now
and saw love.

Sickness, disease, danger and fear,
loneliness, loss and uncertainty
is, was, and forever will be
washed away in their blue,
at least for me.

Certainty cannot exist
without love,

of this I am certain.