What I am Reading this Morning

The Beginning
By Anthony Abbott

"Isn't the end that's important," said Mary. "It's the beginning." Romulus Kinney, Jesus Tales

You see, I have forgotten everything
except the losing. I do not know
about the kissing, the placement
of the hands or the lips or whether
the Tobago goes this way or that.

I do not know any more about the touching
or the movement of limbs
or the freedom of the eyes to watch
or whether anything is wanted
or how one knows desire. I remember

only that on certain nights
when the full moon hung low on the horizon
there was the beginning
of something more than you and me
something more than self

and if I lost that forever
it would be losing God
or whatever God is. To save that
I would perform a hundred tasks
pluck a thousand blossoms,

do penance under some saint's rock
if only it would lead
to a blue door in the green wood.
I would unlive it all
so we could again begin.

*photograph by helen errington, locked no key