MIRACLE FAIR
The commonplace miracle:
that so many common miracles take place.
The usual miracles:
invisible
dogs barking
in the dead of night.
One of many miracles:
a small
and airy cloud
is able to upstage the massive moon.
Several miracles in one:
an
alder is reflected in the water
and is reversed from left to right
and
grows from crown to root
and never hits bottom
though the water isn't
deep.
A run-of-the-mill miracle:
winds mild to moderate
turning gusty in storms.
A miracle in the first place:
cows will be cows.
Next but not least:
just this
cherry orchard
from just this cherry pit.
A miracle minus top hat and tails:
fluttering white doves.
A miracle (what else can you call
it):
the sun rose today at three fourteen a.m.
and will set tonight at
one past eight.
A miracle that's lost on us:
the hand actually has fewer than six fingers
but still it's got more
than four.
A miracle, just take a look around:
the inescapable earth.
An extra miracle, extra and
ordinary:
the unthinkable
can be thought.
~ Wislawa Szymborska ~
(View With a Grain of Sand, translated
by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh)
