clearing webs from the hovel

a blistered hand on the handle of a shovel

i've been digging too deep

i always do

i see my face on the surface

i look a lot like narcissus

a dark abyss of an emptiness

standing on the edge of a drowning blue



i look behind my ears for the green

and even my sweat smells clean

glare off the white hurts my eyes

i gotta get out of bed

get a hammer and a nail

learn how to use my hands

not just my head

i think myself in a jail

now i know a refuge never grows

from a chin in a hand

and a thoughtful pose

gotta tend the earth

if you want a rose



i had a lot of good intentions

sit around for fifty years

and then collect a pension

started seeing the road to hell

and just where it starts

but my life is more than a vision

the sweetest part is acting

after making a decision

started seeing the whole

as a sum of its parts



and i look behind my ears for the green

and even my sweat smells clean

glare off the white hurts my eyes

gotta get out of bed

get a hammer and a nail

learn how to use my hands

not just my head

i think myself in a jail

now i know a refuge never grows

from a chin in a hand

and a thoughtful pose

gotta tend the earth

if you want a rose



my life is part of the global life

i'd found myself becoming more immobile

when i'd think a little girl in the world

can't do anything

a distant nation my community

and a street person my responsibility

if i have a care in the world

i have a gift to bring



i look behind my ears for the green

even my sweat smells clean

glare off the white hurts my eyes

i gotta get out of bed

get a hammer and a nail

learn how to use my hands

not just my head

i think myself in a jail

now i know a refuge never grows

from a chin in a hand

and a thoughtful pose

gotta tend the earth

if you want a rose