WALKING ON WASHINGTON STREET

All the way to heaven is heaven.
--St. Catherine of Sienna


It's my birthday,
temperature 100 degrees
and I'm walking on Washington Street,
when it occurs to me
that I will never be loved enough.
Never.

And what's more, I will soon
grow old
and no one will see me
through my veil of skin.


Then from nowhere
I recall St. Catherine's words.
And though I still don't know
what heaven is,
I know with absolute certainty
that it exists
because right there
in the midst of the heat
the confusion and fatigue
I've passed through it
on Washington St.

It's my birthday,
temperature 100 degrees,
and for one bright moment,
loving, just loving
is enough.

8/02/06