No IOU’s

where were we when the planet became death
remember the small dark seed that shaped
a new way remember when small and weak became
large and capable and that when we tell the dead
we see them the tragedy and the vengeance
that fells a heart falls away and yes we fear
change and fall apart when death arrives and yes
we want the hands that feel the feet that walk
the eyes that see even here at the edge where death
wakes and strange events taste the mystery here we
meet pray repent bless the grave where we learn
we can change and share the darkness that bears
the shame and amens events and balms the sea
breaks the waves and says grace and keeps watch
beneath the ever strange yet always tender tree.

The Path Ahead

Wild parakeets pass over us and the greening fruit:
a pear, apples, plums all visible & seeding the path

ahead, temptation for the collared doves
who, greedy, will bend back white globes of clover

in this, the tender time of wild cherries
hanging bright off stems—leaves will wilt

when there is no rain and in this time of green fruit,
a ripening thought seeds my mind:

for the people who cannot breathe we must listen
to the earth and believe what she is saying:

you, each ripening fruit, have faith, inhale
the scent of jasmine but do not walk on.

Evalyn Lee is a former CBS News producer and poet currently living in London. She has produced television segments for 60 Minutes in New York and then for the BBC in London. Her broadcast work has received an Emmy and numerous Writers Guild Awards. Her poetry, short stories and essays have been published over in forty literary magazines.