If we were to ask

and they were to answer,

what would the creatures who live among us

have to say about what they need?

What if they’ve been telling us all along,

but we have lacked the will to hear?

                                                                                JDG

Across the divides

of gender, race, religion,

nationality, and politics we 

could build bridges constructed,

bit by bit, of small acts

 of respect and kindness –

bridges strong enough

to hold the weight of

our heavily burdened pasts.

                                             JDG

Sometimes an inner boulder

gets in our way.

Yelling does no good, but if

we could sit with it long enough

we might see it for what it is

and what it could become –

a sign,

a sculpture,

a building block,

or all three.

                                                          JDG

A tiny deer lies dead among bright

bachelor buttons –

a bleak sign of our hurried times.

                                                     JDG

Even when we die,

the ever-morphing puzzle

of identity

will not be complete.

Those who follow 

will put the pieces

 together, first one way

and then another,

as they too grow and change.

                                                JDG