The Trial of the Soul by Physics by Alice Oswald

 
Tired I am tired of the rules
I am so tired of the same old
             limitless justice of the light
and the trial of the soul by physics
 
who can I shout at if I shout
it is the same strict softness
        as lifts the leaves
that breezily descends and snuffs it out
 
how come the dew by means of evaporation
and certain seeds
       by means of tiny hairs and fans
get away on a wisp of air
 
what’s missing what should have been thought of  here
     is a thousand foot folded sheet of gold
stepped and tapering into space
like a tilted beam of God 
 
or at least a ladder
leaning into these rain-worn trees
with two steel rails and its feet refracted in the river 
 
so that slowly the soul with trailing watersleeves 
and silted shoes could get out
and then another and another
 
the way mosquitos stand around in groups on the water
fixing their broken struts and all
    suddenly crookedly ascend


September 2020
 

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