Amiss

Ah, we would wander quite amiss

If we forget to cherish this

Of moment-mist as day soft-kissed

Becomes the thing the night resists

Before the dark unveils its face

To grant another day of grace

Time’s showcase where life’s finer things

Tug season-tides and tied heart-strings

Would be an insult to the air

If we forget to linger there

To trace a hemline not of chance

But mercy-metered song and dance

Love, wrought within and God-beget

Illiterate, unlearned and yet

Like ether oceans unconfined

Perplexes heart and vexes mind

Rushing where God alone can see

Our wisdom-wanton misery

This universal longing dwells

Where Time's prescription never quells

The war of holding-letting go

And we, unlearned in things of soul

Covet, yet curse its gripping grief

Where love is both angst and relief

Yet, we would wander quite amiss

If we forget to cherish this

Of morning rolling like a wave

Across the utmost that we crave

Ancient, its virgin offering breaks

Anew upon past’s muted lakes

© Janet Martin