From The Dust

We are dust, you know? 
It need not be a churchy thing, to think about this. 
It need not always be marked on our heads, 
the dark stain of our living and someday dying. 
It is a thing we know in our bones, 
maybe especially when we have been sequestered for
going on a year that feels like many more. 
Do we need to cover our faces with dirt, 
when already they are masked
when already we know that even breathing can be
a dangerous business in these frail human forms? 
We are plenty practiced in rending our hearts,
have scattered ashes far and wide
to the very ends of the earth. 
We are covered in dust.
Have been daily called up into this knowing
of our eventual end. 
We are marked. We are reminded. 
​This season is redundant. 
And what can we give up or lay down
​that has not already been taken? 
What small joy or comfort has not already been added 
to the long list of things unsafe, untouchable? 
And yet, 
we lean towards a dim winter light
that lingers near the corners
where two dark lines cross in the middle. 
And let the artist's stroke tell the story
of all the miraculous life
that dwells in dust and darkness
all the beginnings marked by ashes
and the endless wonder of having
nothing left to lay down.