(For my friends Matt and Nancy Diggs)
When light first breached the darkened sky
A hot relentless sun began to rise
And parch the land until
It cracked the shallow crust
That opened slightly for the seed
To find its way, allowing rain
To flow in crevices unseen
And with the moistened dirt,
Cajole the seed to life.
The grass grew tall, unturned by plow or spade;
And in the summer wind it waved,
Green with hope and promise barely made,
Redolent with all those scents that life creates.
But that was many years ago. The grass is gone.
In winter’s time it died, drowned beneath
A snow that covers all. And in its place is memory
- A trade perhaps unfair - but still a trade that leaves
Us richer than before the grass had grown,
With dreams of years we never owned.
There are no answers to the riddle posed
Except what G‑d has granted us to know
That life and love will still survive,
Because the spring will once again arrive
As we await the melting of the snow.
- Finding the Light of G‑d, page 92