On taking some down time
a blessing for the new year
On New Year’s Day
By Marge Piercy
Bless this my house under the pitch pines
where the cardinal flashes and the kestrels hover
crying, where I live and work with my lover
Woody and my cats, where the birds gather
in winter to be fed and the squirrel dines
from the squirrel-proof feeder. Keep our water
bubbling up clear. Protect us from the fire’s
long teeth and the lashing of the hurricanes
and the government. Please, no foreign wars.
Keep this house from termites and the bane
of quarreling past what can be sweetly healed.
Keep our cats from hunters and savage dogs.
Watch with care over Woody splitting logs
and mostly keep us from our sharpening fear
as we skate over the ice of the new year.
Love it.
I would add protect us from the really long teeth of developers. They devour the trees, nature, space that adds all that we need to our lives. They do it for dollars. The young ones think 'it was always like this'. No, it wasn't.
There are too many humans.