There are only short moments of safety.
A glass of milk in the darkness, under these
uncompromising stars,
the bright canals of shadowed cities, cradle dreams.
Love, we can never ask for more than this.

Sleeping, I find a shelter under trees, not knowing
anything else to do except subsist
in single moments, losing faith and finding no other choice
but the jump and fall in the terrible sky.

Within and without, there is nothing but mercy
and this is a hard truth
this is the rock of the chosen, the perfect desert, pleasureless,
where we are blessed and broken, and I,
hurt child in a frightened country, live
with each second of time torn open.
We are embraced by this risk, by this only possible
knowledge

that the world is not a warm place unless
we insist it be so, and our hands and arms have no great strength
but our poor hearts beating, this moment, this moment
are not yet betrayed.

Maggie Helwig
Toronto ON