That Dominion

When I used to love the rain,
I found work as an umbrella salesman

When I loved the sun,
shade became my shelter

The wind caressed me,
so I locked my windows and sealed my drafts

I would become numb to it,
move my boat from following seas and into rocky coves

Stone shelter

I would hew it and build it, shoulder it and groan under it,
shift and shift, seal off the cracks

where the light gets in
where the wind tries to touch me
the rain to wash me

I am dirty
I am cold
I am still

Where light cannot find me,
where sleep never ends

Until some strange foreign actor
tilts their spade the ground
shifts weight, cracks seals,

And orders me up.

Out of the dominion of the dark,
into a day that shifts from sun, to rain, wind, back and forth,
into a rollicking ride of heat, sweat, cries,
into the fear again, of facing storms
rushed forward by following winds