What does it mean
to stand or not stand?
Who decides justice or mercy?
A sandwich lies on the plate, half-eaten.
A song is half-sung,
A crime half-committed.
Souls rise up from the earth
and from small clay jars on the mantel,
even from the ocean.
Pets also. And cobras.
And circus elephants who ceased
their performances
a half-century ago.
Today is the day of new beginnings,
surely not of endings?
Sophie’s Shelves 