Lent

Local weather has been rolled aside
One day in the middle of week
Where it is advised to all those practicing
That they may eat one large and two smaller meals
Not to equal the larger one.

The clearing out of winter,
What are we to make of that except
That the leaden air must dissolve itself like a kind
Of mental confusion that dissipates
In order to make room for something.

In the window lies
A brocade of sky underscored
By brown trunks all the length of the horizon,
Boughs that have begun
Arching forward

As if in defiance
Of a cold that is slowly losing
Its edge. I don’t care about
The ascent of humidity down South in April,
What this can do to my nerves. Rather

To fast with the mind
Means to allow oneself
To be drawn
By an unseen world
In and around everything.