The Four Stanzas of the Apocalypse

The sky has fasted in the desert 
forty thousand years. 
Now it’s caught a glimpse 
of barley fields and orange groves: 
the table the world sets for winter. 

If clouds could study the earth 
they’d find not one soul who’d died of joy. 
Elephants standing against the wind. 
Whales cargoing the sea with history. 
The leap of the jaguar in gravity’s face. 

Men’s crimes are tilled into the soil. 
God farms with the faithfulness of tides. 
Elm trees lift their frail wings 
and the world readies itself to ascend. 
All things alive are the triumph of good will. 

Our ancestors are the cold fronts 
of the Arctic. Our children are 
the ecstasy of the equator. At any 
second, the thrill of sunlight 
could overrun all our thoughts. 
Our sins are only fences to climb 
or kick down. The ghosts 
of Adam and Eve wave us to shore.