Not from Here

I am not from here--
neither are you. We blew in on a spring breeze.
We were washed from the deep places
by an unexpected flood.
God sowed a handful of stars across the earth
and waited to see what would sprout.

When you looked up and thought
you recognized something in the clouds
it was because you're not from here.

When I saw a fish break water and I burst into tears
it was because I'm not from here.

Drunk at the edge of the sidewalk, reeling
from doorstep to doorstep, blinded
by the light of the sky, we're not from here

and we have to learn the language of the rocks and trees,
learn to read the writing on human faces
and the tides of human blood
the churning rhythms of our birth,
are just things we picked up on the way out,
on the way here.

Collection available! Knocking from Inside