Kindred

Then I shuttered my eyes to the mundane

and saw living blue flame

rising inside me, then

seeping out through my fingertips.

Then I stripped naked

the curtains from my ears

and heard the flame

calling out to a kindred soul

in the heart of a tiny salamander.

    Our eyes caught and we knew this truth:

What people don’t see or hear

is so much bigger than what 

they caught.

 J. Pratt-Walter, © 2020

flow

your smile is a living candle

and I the moth rejoicing


your heart

bears a trusting gravity

and I the apple unresisting

fall


your soul opens into

an intelligent sea and I am

the boat in thrall sailing to our days

as they must flow
on


J. Pratt-Walter, (c) 2019

In The News

Have you seen how poison gas peels

the flesh off a baby?    

Everything melts away except

for skin under the diaper.

Have you noticed how

a bullet pulls destruction through

all the layers of a child?

These children, our world’s hope,

were too small to know

how full of God they were, 

the pure crystal shimmer,

precious and holy.

J. Pratt-Walter, © 2019

Just Now

If I could just hold this moment,

swallow it, nothing less, nothing more,

I will have lived well.


Opening the door,

rain has teased the grass back to life.

The dog lies quiet on the porch.

The horse is cropping the lawn.


The last gold crowns of calendula

flame up at me.  There is fresh

strong coffee in my cup.

The night granted me good sleep.


The air is so soft it embraces.

I see my life just now as a

precious glass butterfly in my open palm.

I pick her up with love.



J. Pratt-Walter

©  2019

Circle of Caring

We have drawn a warm circle

of caring in close

and placed you in the center.

We have all worn those troubles.

They are so heavy.

Here, hand me some before they

eclipse your soul.

Troubles loom wild and far.

But Dear Heart, you are not alone.

J. Pratt-Walter, © 2019

In The Crosshairs

Everywhere they instruct you on who to hate. 

Believe it!  It’s our government!  It’s for your own good!


Fingers point as hate battles your thoughts.

Brown people, Moslems, Jews are taking your rights away!


Queer people, Mexicans, Liberals are stealing your jobs!

Sick people, immigrants, the poor are eating your food!

Journalists who tell real news, women who expect

autonomy over their body parts – hate hate hate!


They can’t stop vomiting up their hatred all over you.

Fear and loathing grin from every corner.


Then they plant assault rifles in your town, crowing

“You Second Amendment people can take care of this”

and “I could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and still…”


Suddenly people are wearing bold red targets

on their heads as ravenous hate bathes roads, ditches,

schools and churches in easy greasy red.


There are crosshairs looking for you next.


J. Pratt-Walter, © 2019

Being Found

 You can’t play hide and seek

with yourself forever.

Eventually the thunder reaches into

your secret hollows and slumbering roots.

   

       Eventually

       the years jump out to meet us,

       whether we accept them or not.

The rest of the task is learning which side

a gate opens out on while unlearning

what it meant to be lost.

J. Pratt-Walter, ©  2019