Faith

I stare at the weeds on the woods’ edge

Straining to parse something animal

Amid the vegetal, but I cannot detect

What caused the dogs to bolt, tails aloft,

Backs hackled, to the fence and bark

With the conviction of a martyr at

Whatever they were sure waited on

The other side, such faith that there was

Something beyond the nothing I descry

That I will take their testament as true

And believe in the groundhog I cannot see.

9/21/2024