All We Always Do

by Daniel H. Lee

You are as deceptive as the winter’s sun promising warmth
The trickster that was the fig tree that drew near even God to itself
All shall wither in due season
When rightness and justice also ripens
Due cause, due process

The time passes as do the years in step
On the universal metronome
Play your part, the looped refrain
I have been far too patient as it is

What has gone around shall not come about to repay
Nor to reward
Wasting away in query
And just as much, forgotten
as you have been forsaken
In whose good interest, we shall see to hear back regarding

Why would the meek inherit the earth
With nothing worthwhile remaining after the current lot has had its fun
And its run with it?
Even a starving dog waiting with eager drool for table scraps and
used crumbs
Should have some dignity
To salvage
If not for its own sake
Be content in its incomplete cadence

I have nothing left to say and far less to express with
Eyes still upturned, though my head is lowered
Fixed on the stars, determin—
—ing, which of these diamonds is the true eye of God upon me
Which shall fail first?
We exchange a heartfelt wink
One
To the other.
That is all we always do.