A Poem About Blessings (for Someone I Love)
Today is the 60th birthday of someone I love, so I searched various archives for a poem about blessings. This one wasn't what I was envisioning, and it isn't particularly relevant to the occasion, but it made me smile, and upon further reflection, I have to say that this person I love does indeed live and work so hard, God’s love washes right through him.
(The guy in the picture ascending the hill is the birthday boy...)
THE BLESSING of the OLD WOMAN, the TULIP, and the DOG by Alice Suskin Ostriker
To be blessed
said the old woman
is to live and work
so hard
God’s love
washes right through you
like milk through a cow
To be blessed
said the dark red tulip
is to knock their eyes out
with the slug of lust
implied by
your up-ended skirt
To be blessed
said the dog
is to have a pinch
of God
inside you
and all the other
dogs can smell it
“The Blessing of the Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog” from The Book of Seventy, by Alicia Suskin Ostriker, © 2009