One morning I was looking out the window
when a great wild goodness came over me:
I wanted to be kind to everything. I promised
not to kill the spider on the wall; in the cold
I took the dog for the long walk she’d been wanting;
I fetched a trashcan lid for an ornery neighbor
and did not, just then, add a single adjective to his name.
I went back inside to the laundry and dishes
with a clean heart such as I have never had.
Before dinner the wild goodness shouted, “Too tame!
Too tame!” so I went outside without my coat
and shouted poems up to the stars
until my children came home with their small
warm hands. Then we ate bread
in the kitchen, unafraid to be happy.
The stars in wild darkness were right over our heads.
