First Light, May 17, 2008, Arrives in Springfield, New Hampshire

i

I am here for death today:

the memorial service at a Baptist Church I will feel awkward in--

behind its white clapboards, beneath the white clock spire;

Elinore Cochran, Carl's wife;

he hired me; I think you took an English course he taught:

Elinore died this past March.

For Elinore, I'll mouth hymns off-key, and eat strangers' foods;

I do not know what I would do among the Buddhists for you.

ii

So, Brooke, be here now:

in this field, the stones like kneecaps of people we knew, warming;

or over there:

the leaves of trees I never learned coming back from black to green:

or up here:

the sounds  like jewels  of invisible birds  spilling out of the light.

--Michael McMahon

for Brooke on her ordination as a Buddhist monk