Poem: "Build a Better Basket"

browngirl

janetmiles

browngirl

Politics is an effort
to create order from chaos,
to shape agreement out of obstinance
and carry it like the day.

It connects the human to the historic
and each of us to the others,
as the ribs of a basket bend and arch
to attach to its bottom.

Religion is an effort
to understand the enigmatic,
to place the indescribable
in a container we can comprehend.

It connects the human to the divine
and each of us to the others,
like the strand weaving in and out
of a basket’s ribs.

Put the two together and
the container begins to take shape:
we endeavor to hold ourselves
within these softly curving walls.

Yet belief is like buttermilk,
liquid and tart; it spills through the holes.
Ideals are fireflies on a foggy evening;
neither the light nor the fog can be contained.

We are left with a mess of connections
that is not quite complete.
We are left with a determination
to build a better basket.