We Know
by Mindie Kniss
by Kate Hutchinson
If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly,
our whole life would change.
– Buddha
We are only kidding ourselves
When we say the wind carries secrets
For we know as surely as the sparrows
That sand was once stone
And that leaves fall from trees
Only to bare them for ice.
We know with the certainty of voles
That beneath the sprawling oaks
Lie roots as gnarled and knotted
As the loves and enmities
Of our buried ancestors.
But still we grope and claw
With stick and fork and knife
Through damask of our own making
Into dark rooms where candles once burned
And we try to make meaning
From wax beads dripped carelessly
On smooth mute tables
All the while deaf and blind
To the calligraphy humming
In a single blade of grass
Just outside the door.
Kate Hutchinson teaches English and is Fine and Performing Arts Coordinator at a large suburban high school near Chicago. Her poetry and non-fiction have been published in several journals and collections, most recently The Sow’s Ear, Cloudbank, and two of the Cup of Comfort collections. Editor’s note: “We Know” originally appeared in Mosaic, literary journal of National-Louis University, Chicago, June 2008.
