Monday Poem: Here is the Place

Here is the Place

Here is the place we stood
to see the world begin.
Here is the time we took
to get to know the world.

Now all that is gone and lost
and the days begin without us.
We do not need the ceremonies
of morning. We know the sun

will rise without us. We do not
need to be there to witness
its rebirth from the distant horizon,
coming over the hillsides

and out of the morning mists
and shadows to meet us.
These days we do not need
a shadow to touch the earth

or to let hot sacrificial blood
seep deep into the ground,
even though too much blood
still gets wasted in the dust.