An Incantation for Warmth and Kindness and Justice

 Coming to the end of the year and I'm feeling the need for an incantation.

May next year be a better one. For all of us.

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An Incantation for Warmth and Kindness and Justice

Oh, Creator of

all elements

all molecules 

all compounds

whose electron shells

divert energy from the Sun

in a marvelous cascade

through chlorophyll

through rubisco

through cytochrome

and others I can no longer remember,

through organelle structures

fashioned from spare parts,

from assimilated invaders

passed down through time

from the Mothers

to me

(among others.)

I beseech you, with all the energy granted 

to me – 

approximately 100 watts

they say, more or 

less     if I am not thinking

about much 

on my second day of break

after a long and grueling fall,

especially as I soak up

some of that energy

stored in the wood

burning quietly 

in the woodstove,

and especially

as I have entered my seventh decade

piloting a body

that has sprung a few leaks

and resists caulking,

whose speed in the race has diminished,

whose decks need more

frequent swabbing, 

whose barnacle encrusted

rudder makes avoiding

storms

more difficult.

May this year

bend toward warmth

toward kindness

toward justice;

may it

require

less energy

to maintain the heat

of the soul.

For my sake

and ours.

Let

it 

be

so.

– steve peterson