POEM: Mystic

(On the event of John Patrick Thomas Nields-Duffy’s Christening,
Easter Sunday, 2009)

When they ask you what you believe in,
Tell them you are a mystic -
Tell them you believe in the miracle of the ordinary.
That simplicity glorifies God.
Tell them that work is how you pray.

Prophesy the whispering glint of each morning,
Your brotherhood with the pines and
The rapacious shout of each noon sun overhead,
As these are all the proof you need.

Trust what bubbles up from within
When you are alone, gripped tight
By the quiet footfall of a drowsy first snowfall
When your eyelashes catch the fragile white cloud shavings
That drop quiet as secrets all around you.

Closely watch the snowflake as it jukes downward
Into lumpy piles on the ground –
And that will teach you how to live.