On a Day, in the World

On a Day, in the World

Brenda Hillman

                We had a grief

 we didn't understand while

                standing¹ at the edge of

     some low scrub hills as if

 humans were extra

 or already gone -- ;

what had been in us before?

                a life that asks for mostly

     wanting freedom to get things done

 in order to feel less

                helpless about the end

     of things alone -- ;

  when i think of time on earth,

     i feel the angle of gray minutes

                entering the medium days

     yet not "built-up":: our

 work together: groups, the willing

      burden of an old belief,

                & beyond them love, as of

    a great life going like fast

 creatures peeling back marked

    seeds, gold-brown integuments

    the color time

   will be when we are gone --