Te Deum

Lord sho been good to me My loved hoe handle, and my sweat, heart pounding and the towhee singing. Jill, jerking the hospital sheets, “Damn careless nurses    ... “But golly    ...    a good life. “That student who kept writing me. “That rainy picnic by a road in Burgundy. “Heart thumping, thumping on    ...    more, more....” A squirrel on a post. The nutgrooved skull drops; he claws the dirt. Next winter! Frost thrown down, a stiffened morning, a harsh corrective herb to gnaw, take in. Sho been, Lord, Sho been Whether born of  kiss sublime, victim’s terror, rapist crime, and however ending, nut-gnawers nulled inscrutably, or Caesars, soldiers, friends lammed open-eyed — Lord, good...sho been