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The Infinite Charm of Firefly Glow by Lisa Shields

CERTAIN KNOWLEDGE

When the seeker invokes the softly spoken,
when the light of day is simply gray passage
to the coming of a wine-dark night,
when the stars slow to the eye,
and the all is in perfect silence
comes the time of Certain Knowledge,
when the old gods speak best.

Hints and glints of a tongue long faded,
a sound that recalls a touch
and faces we do not forget
no matter that life has lost them.
We seek the knowing of absolute,
cradle the past in our arms
like an infant never born,
but longed for,
dreamt about,
and named to our hearts.

We reach for certain knowledge,
with hands that tremble,
seeking to bury the doubt
before the last sheet is drawn,
to know what it is,
why we are,
and how ghosts became a comfort,
in tempestuous times,
how we spent our minutes
as if we would not one day count them,
hoard them,
kiss each one
like a child we were doomed to lose.

Comes the time of certain knowledge,
when all we gave to regret
is measured, and weighed,
then given its due dignity
passed through pomp and ceremony,
settled to a price, never what we reckoned, or guessed,
and always more than we wished to pay.

Comes the time when the mist lifts
and wishes or dreams fade to words
we breathed to dawn, or dusk,
when we are looking at the correct place
and sky is just a map of the cosmos
imprinted with our lives.

Then you hear the voice
that says you will never know all, but perhaps in time,
you will know enough
to make a true reckoning
of the skin we were given to dance in,
for the ticks we counted as lives,
for all the questions the old gods
ignored because they had already answered.

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TREMBLE

An intellectual discussion
on a small word . . .
such a loaded word
from where I sit.
So many things that tremble can mean,
or suggest;
not fear exactly, something
more delicate than that.

When I am afraid, I shake,
bone deep and wracking.
When I am angry,
it comes in waves
and I vibrate,
but few things make me tremble,
and all of them are dangerous.
Tremble means my heart is involved,
tremble means I have been touched,
tremble means I should not go there,
and always
tremble means I already have.

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