On that first day
We woke up restless
Stillborn, bleak, dry and dark
Blood dispersed in the water black
Ink without paper
Language without form
Absence without grief
It was all ours
And ours alone
Hear the scalpel-sharp intake
Of a baby’s first troubled breath
On a day like this, there are no
words
Yet our voiceless cry, it must be
heard
For our wings, they are tired
And there is no land in sight
How easy it would be
To grow weary
And drown
Unspoken
But this
This is not our fate
Not for us
Not today
We find each other
Down in the darks
We flip the genetic switch
We throw off living sparks
As we say with one voice
I AM the light
Today
On the second day
We again woke up restless
We are a blinding light
We are water undivided
We are an embryo
In need of a womb
A traveler
In need of a room
And these endless waters
Surround us like an empty tomb
So we divide them with a whisper
As we say
I AM the expanse between the waters
And I AM the fertile heavens
Today
On the third day
We again woke up restless
Waters above and waters below
And still nowhere to rest our wings
And no body to which they can give
flight
And nobody still to hear us say
That we are the land
Today
And our unformed stomach growls
As our unformed bones strain for
structure
And our unformed lungs gasp for the
air
By which we sing
I AM the soil that nourishes
I AM the roots that hold fast
And I AM the tree that bears fruit
Today
On the fourth day
We again woke up restless
An introvert in a dance class
We are a body without rhythm
We are a poem without rhyme
We are a mind without
understanding
We are a clock without… hours,
minutes or seconds
So we strike midnight ourselves
with holy resonance
And our words pour out like the
chime
I AM the day and the night
I AM the circadian design
I AM a constellation of light
And I AM the one whom the seasons
define
Today
On the fifth day
We again woke up restless
To our subconscious charade
Of spiritual second guesses
We are the glass of wine
With nothing inside it
We are logic without reason
We are a decision undecided
We are a violent riot never incited
We are true love unrequited
So we say together under our breath
I AM the heights in the darkest
depths
I AM all the fish that got away
I AM the slumbering mind of the
whales
I AM the doves that return every May
And I AM the wings by which the
spirit sails
Today
And yet
On the sixth day
We again woke up restless
Not wanting enough to even want not
And where, we ask, where has that
lack now left us?
We are a seagull made of straw and
hay
We are an eagle but with no need of
prey
We are a fish in the depths
Safely hidden away
We are the opium in need of the
dying
We are erosion’s decay without even
trying
Without our desire
We are not multiplying
For without wrath
There is no wine
So we raise our glass high
With one voice we cry
I AM the hitchhiking wheat harvest
beatle
I AM the seagull and everything’s
mine
I AM the mouse that flees from the
eagle
I AM the ox that plows the field for
the vine
I AM the lion full of hunger
unequaled
And I AM the serpent who feeds you
this line
Today
And now
At the fifth hour
On the sixth day
We still find ourselves restless
The seven course feast is prepared
But we’re still missing the guest
list
We are the dining room with nobody
in it
We are the house but without a home
We are the hall of government
without the senate
We are the palace with no king on
the throne
We are the altar with no priest
attendant
We are the temple with no idol of
stone
We are the idol itself with no God to
dwell in it
After all we’ve become we still
stand alone
So we speak without hesitance
I AM the invited guest
I AM the current resident
I AM the senator, the governor, the
elected president
I AM the king by ancestral lineage
I AM the high priest in the holy
room
I AM the consecrated graven image
I AM the I AM in each of you
Today
And on the seventh day?
We woke up…
Rested
No longer alone
This house now a home
So together as one
We blessed it
