On a Day, In the World

           We had a grief
we didn't understand while
           standing at the edge of
   some low scrub hills as if
humans were extra
   or already gone;—
 
what had been in us before?
          a life that asks for mostly
    wanting freedom to get things done
in order to feel less
          helpless about the end
of things alone—;
 
when i think of time on earth,
   i feel the angle of gray minutes
          entering the medium days
    yet not "built-up":: our
work together: groups, the willing
    burden of an old belief,
 
           & beyond them love, as of
    a great life going like fast
creatures peeling back marked
    seeds, gold-brown integuments
    the color time
  will be when we are gone—

Copyright Credit: "On a Day, In the World" from Extra Hidden Life, among the Days © 2018 by Brenda Hillman.  Published by Wesleyan University Press. Used by permission.