☼ july

the summer day who made the world? who made the swan and the black bear? who made the grasshopper? this grasshopper, I mean the one who has flung herself out of the grass, the one who is eating sugar out of my hand, who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down who is gazing around with her enormous  and complicated eyes now she lifts her pale forearms  and thoroughly washes her face now she snaps her wings open and floats away I don't know what prayer is I do know how to pay attention how to fall down onto the grass how to kneel down in the grass how to be idle and blessed how to stroll through the fields which is what I have been doing all day tell me what else should I have done? doesn't everything die at last and too soon? tell me, what is it you plan to do with your precious life? mary oliver