January 2020
Author's Note:
“Justice,” is from my first book, Mansions, a hand-made limited edition. Mansions changed my life course from psychotherapy to poetry, with a few stops
in fiction along the way. Next to my family and my dog, poetry is what I love best.
Justice
In the down of leaf-dropping trees,
in the meadow under flowers and weeds,
all seasons are ambient, all lesions benign,
no pigs go to market,
no pigs eat roast beef,
all bodies dine on seven
species of onion
in the down of leaf-dropping trees,
the wolf stays for supper,
Grandmother pours wine,
soft camels sing
sweetly as troubadours,
inhaling inspiration,
there is no rumination,
in the meadow under flowers and weeds
sweat flows freely,
tears flow freely,
there is no word for shame,
prophets are well known
yet honored,
lost lovers return
with lost car keys,
prodigals return chastened
without celebration,
orchids grow wild
in the down of leaf-dropping trees,
Keats and Mozart grow old.
In this garden of composure
Van Gogh paints
his child sleeping in a great lap of leaves
in the meadow under flowers and weeds.
from Mansions, 1990
©2020 Donna Hilbert
Editor's Note: If this poem(s) moves you please consider writing to the
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It is very important. -FF