Sometimes You Want to be Stronger than Fate

You want to know how it is possible to sustain
attention over broken periods of time, how to find

again the cord of your lineage and the emblems
of not-darkness in the rubble. You want to know

where the birds with emerald plumes went 
after they abandoned the garden, and whether

someone remembered to save the seeds 
from the fruit of once abundant trees. You

were taught to pray to the gods of sustenance, 
which means it is likely you made promises

of some unequal exchange: a hundred  weights to carry
for repeal of one kind of suffering. Not to seem proud

or ungrateful, but you remind yourself— for every
grain that needed counting, you kept making room.