“People used to say that the blessed would see heaven.  My wish would be to see the earth forever.”

            -Peter Handke

To Speak Their Names

The Chinese said there were many

gods in the body but to speak their

names was to lose them.

I like to think of all the names we

have for birds and what these tiny

gods may call themselves.  Thank

god we’ll never know.  If we could

speak their names we’d lose them too.

It’s sad we don’t realize we were small

gods too, before we learned to speak

our names ten-thousand times a day.