Temporary Angels

I was visited by an angel

that sunny afternoon in May

Amid sun-speckled shade

lying head-in-lap with my lover

on a park bench beneath the ripening Spring

of our youth

Her name was Emily

- the angel, not my lover -

and she lived in the dorm

behind Dartmouth Hall

It was Spring, of course

and suddenly

The air was filled with cherry blossoms

A gentle snowburst of velvet white

showering down upon our heads

Amid the green

And Emily was dancing around us,

singing an ode to love

and to the young lovers

which we yet were

And then, as quickly, she was gone -

or going, at the very least

Having delivered her message,

her psalm

Waking in us the realization

of how good, at this very moment,

it was to be us

Right Now

She descended to earth and resumed

her merely mortal task

of getting to class on time

The Hebrew makes no distinction:

mal'akh is messenger

and mal'akh is angel

The two were the same to our fathers

Until now, when so many wait,

brushing aside messages of love

from those who hold them dear

While waiting for an angel to bring them a sign

It brings me to tears

But even so, I am drawn

to park benches

Where weary mothers rest while their children run

Where old couples wait

in each other's quiet company

Remembering springtime

and cherry blossoms of their own

Where the street-sullied man

whose dreams have been reduced

for now

to three carrier bags

and a cockeyed grocery cart

Where he nurses his soul

and asks "What now?"

I can't help it - I am drawn

These are sacred spaces

Like my own Mount Moriah where,

anointed in cherry blossoms,

I was visited by an angel

to renew my faith

And so, donning my heart of paper wings

I slow when I approach

to do what little any stranger can

from the passing glance of a morning's walk

An earnest smile is all:

to recognize the humanity

the beauty that is you

And pay homage to your hopes,

your dreams

and the untold story

of the long road you have known

That is all

But again, why?

Because I know that for this one moment

in the eyes of my fathers

and all they believed in

By delivering this message

I too am an angel

(While walking along Île des Cygnes in Paris)