Poetry for a Monday

I find myself without anything much to say today but I am trying to maintain what is working and is good for me. Some of that includes sustaining a connection with this lovely community, so I've got a poem to share with you. Another thing that is working for me is spending time at my kitchen table - watching the birds, enjoying the sun, planning what I might want to cook, and thinking I really do need to scrub the kitchen floor. Maybe someday I'll actually do it. 

Perhaps the World Ends Here
by Joy Harjo

The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live.

The gifts of earth are brought and prepared, set on the table. So it has been since creation, and it will go on.

We chase chickens or dogs away from it. Babies teethe at the corners. They scrape their knees under it.

It is here that children are given instructions on what it means to be human. We make men at it, we make women.

At this table we gossip, recall enemies and the ghosts of lovers.

Our dreams drink coffee with us as they put their arms around our children. They laugh with us at our poor falling-down selves and as we put ourselves back together once again at the table.

This table has been a house in the rain, an umbrella in the sun.

Wars have begun and ended at this table. It is a place to hide in the shadow of terror. A place to celebrate the terrible victory.

We have given birth on this table, and have prepared our parents for burial here.

At this table we sing with joy, with sorrow. We pray of suffering and remorse. We give thanks.

Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table, while we are laughing and crying, eating of the last sweet bite.

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Harjo, Joy. "Perhaps the World Ends Here". The Woman Who fell From the Sky. W.W. Norton and Co., 1994.

You can read more about Joy Harjo here. 

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I'm hoping there is peace and acceptance at your kitchen tables.