Religion that does not speak to me ever

             may refresh the heart and warm the soul

             of someone else in great need of solace,

             so I’ll back away slowly making no noise

             hoping if he senses my going he’ll never

             know how absolutely I do not understand

             how what he does and says helps at all

             to sooth him in his loneliness and his fear.

            He may never know why the white fence

            with the leftover red flower comforts me.

I went down to check the latest graffiti under the bridges

that cross the river near where I Live. The people who

paint there are artists whose work might hang in museums

if it were submitted on canvas and not hidden out of sight

of everyone but those of us who want to see everything.