No darkness anywhere

Christian Century, May 16, 2001 by Margaret C. Szumowski

   Can we say anything new about these old trees
   dressing themselves up like young girls
   in these flowers, these pale leaves.
   I pretend just as they do
   that I am young, that there is no darkness anywhere.

   Spring and beauty always win out, I want to say.
   Even where there is darkness, the man
   beating the pony, beating the children,
   aren't there also poplars bending in the wind,
   darkly beautiful walnut trees, lilac thick

   in the backyard, noisiness of birds in the Iowa dawn
   and the rich black earth always putting forth
   green shoots. The beauty is what remains
   and the pain cuts like lightning
   across that pastoral landscape.