after Mary Oliver and Cheryl Strayed
When I stepped outside their home,
having offered a prayer
for his next day’s medical procedure,
yet unaware of the school shooting,
I happened upon a sunny butterfly
alighted on a chalk-white flower.
Was this an omen that justice
and peace would finally kiss?
Here is why I feel compelled to pray—
in desperate hope for the future,
and to turn our hearts from despair,
that together we work for change,
and pause to love tiny beautiful things.
