Wider Still

I asked you if your love was wide enough

For the bulk and baggage

I carry on my camel

To make it, with me

Through your needle’s eye

I wasn’t waiting for an answer

I am no stranger to celestial silence

Having learned to live by grit and guesswork

In the grind and grime

Of a grounded human life

But a scratching at my window woke me

And a whisper on the wind said

“Wider still”

Wider still?

Wide enough

For people like me

And people who don’t like me

And even for the people I don’t like?

Wide enough for dead-beats

For deviants and drop-outs?

Wide enough for murderers and marketeers

For salesmen of snake-oil

And of the skins of slaves

Wider, the wind said

Sighing

Wider still

Wider than the skies I shake

Wider than the seas I stir

Wider than the world I wander,

Wider than the tiny terms you use

To explain away your pain

As wide as… wildness

As wide as wisdom

As wide as words like

Yes

And home

And welcome.

So I asked the wind for a scale I could use

As a measure for the models I make of love

And all at once the sky fell silent

But for the quiet clicks of calculation

The clouds counting

Heaven’s hormones humming

This time I waited

Knowing an answer would come

And the wind at last said

“Wider still”