Two Gifts

Unasked, unsought,
nor even imagined,
the young man is
given two gifts,
two beyond his
abilities and talents:
one, encouragement;
the other, faith.
One aims outward,
flowing across a
horizontal plane,
washing and cleansing,
softening the hard
edges of rocks into the
roundedness,
the smoothness of
stones.
The other lifts upward,
emerging from the
darkness as it speeds,
then hurtles in a
sweeping trajectory
toward the light.
He knows the
desolation inward;
he knows the
two are true.


Photograph by Nancy Rosback. Used with permission.