TWO LIGHTS

Two lights
One hangs somber in the northwest
Biding farewell and reminding us
that the dark has not yet given way
Its shimmer has grown pale
As it fades into the waking sky behind
Where it will wait again for familiar night

So long it says
I will see you again when the day
The mysterious day
has passed

We roll southward across the plains
As the stronger light reacquaints itself
With a land nearing the harvest
Through foggy glass I look upon
Divine provision's open palms
Now overlaid with highway
Now covered with a quilt of ornamental landscape
Sidewalks replace the Indian’s trail
Chemical sod covers an old frontier
And we drive

Yet at this hour something sings
And even a city dweller hears it
Clear and soft
The sacred earth-song rises still
Giving the urbanite a new ear
He hears now the prayers of his ancestors
Who rose and labored with the sun
Who lowered their dead into the soil
Who gave their sweat to the fields
In exchange for a living
In exchange for him

Away from the metropolis
Trapped inside a speeding bus
Crossing the land of two lights
I sing back in a sleepy whisper
I am your separated seed
And I will see you again
When the day
The mysterious day
Has passed