Traveling Bones

Down there in Egypt we kept to the bones

Of Joseph the Hebrew, the great patriarch
We kept the dry bones on a string near the door
And on windy days they would clatter and rattle
Telling us who we have been.

Whenever we traveled, the bones traveled with us
In prison and palace, up tenement stairs
In flats and apartments, and all down the street
The traveling bones, the rattling bones
Were our memory and our reward.

When we took to the desert, we carried those bones
On sledges or and wagons, on camels and carts
Not resting or quiet, but clacking in time
Those elbows and ribs, they played out their rhythm
As we marched through sun and sand.

Just now they might feel when their exile is ended
And we come to their home, I cannot imagine
The traveling bones, the rattling bones
And we take their place in their unquiet slumber
As the rattling, clattering bones.

A Dogs Life

Your face hovers over me

paws on my shoulders

As I lay on he floor

On my back Looking up

And I marvel at all

Of the wisdom behind

Those spooky black eyes

And those long drooping ears

There's an animal wisdom

In the face of a dog

Who knows of the value

Of the moment called now

To live in this moment

Without fear or remembrance

To know the full joy

Of a sniff or a scent

Do live full alive

While running a squirrel

While digging a hole

Or rolling in grass

It is the same wisdom

That all animal bear

And all of he dogs

That have lived before

Of Argus and Balto

Of lassie and Bobbie,

And millions and millions

Of soft padded feet.