Hunger without cold
is tolerable one day longer.
Bandaged with night
a bone starts to mend crooked.
A preacher who missed his calling
insistes a homeless man
recite the whole book of psalms
before allowing him to fill a shelter vacancy.
Choose this dry space
not the indentation of a storefront doorway.
Unlearn the blackness
of the preacher’s Christian robes.
Look between tree limbs
to the emptiness between stars.
Think of this scene as a net
to harvest glowing fish from an endless ocean.
copyright © 2023 Kenneth P. Gurney
Umflop 