Soup Kitchen

I served her a meal and my arms grew long

and scraped the ground like a wanderer’s song

she quietly ate what I put before her

my empty arms came to rest

on a well trodden floor

I know you she said

we swam in a school

I fished a response from memory's pool

I am you

you are me

those were days that we knew

full of all the pretension

the fearless dimension of youth

I cannot be hungry though I might have been

I cannot be blind once I have seen

how she bears it so well

how can I tell
alone as I am in the midst of a crowd

I create my path

I reject my own vows

I will learn from her truth

I served her a meal and my heart did swell

not from pride but relief

and I hid that well

fortune has hidden agendas it's true

and there but for stories

of personal worth

goes the story of all of us

from death to birth
for who knows when life starts
who knows but the earth
when our arms reach down deeply
and bring up the song
and we’ll sing it and sometimes
get it better than wrong