DISCARDED DAYS

Time teaches a lighter tread: or/the body bound to gravity must shed/layer after layer. What progress is tracked, /comes only in the manner of what’s discarded: ---From “The Road of Imperfect Attentions” by Luisa A. Igloria, Via Negativa. 07-30-11 

DISCARDED DAYS

What have we discarded cutting through tunnels

we must have plodded to quarry from lives we

might have been accidentally given? What loves

have we found, what hearts have we lost? Layers

of clay, cracked stones, and silt could build us our

houses of hurts and ruptured dreams. Not a home. 

But we take care to wake up to days we can shape,

to moments we could mould like delicate bowls

whence we share victual and drink for our hungry

and thirsty souls. When travel becomes a burden

of faithlessness or pain, we call each other out:

Be brave, hold on, take on the world if we must! 

When these passageways fall dark, we walk on.

After all, our lives are not made of discarded days.

---Albert B. Casuga

07-31-11