Uphill

By Laurie Klein

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          It is God’s kiss, gentle
          as erosion
          —Mark Nepo

Of course, we must all
unravel, as we gravely
mouth the verbs of change,
until ego resists no more
than a garment,

sloughed. May our souls,
exposed, forgo
shoring up gaps,
as if we can somehow
repair one blessèd thing:

these closet selves, no more
substantial than April air
crocheted into a shawl,
only need to be shouldered,
held again to the breastbone.

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Laurie Klein is the author of Where the Sky Opens and Bodies of Water, Bodies of Flesh. A grateful recipient of the Thomas Merton Prize for Poetry of the Sacred, she lives in the Pacific Northwest and blogs, monthly, at lauriekleinscribe.com. 

Laurie's other work on Foreshadow:
Private, as the Small of a Back (Poetry, October 2023)
Predawn (Poetry, October 2023)