Glory Refracted

Glory Refracted

Though beautiful, it will not reach 

its fingers through the dirt to push 

the dormant living up against

the heavy law of gravity. 

It will not send the blind man running, 

leaping in praise that there is such 

a place as this, that on the dark

of ignorance the light of knowing

has settled like a morning dew. 

Refracted rays go dancing on 

the ripples of the lake, but they 

are not what keep the carp and walleye 

swimming, the algae growing on 

the surface, the shore-reeds clustered thick,
as convoluted as the light
we grapple for, craving it
as if it were the source itself.