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Lent
Lynn Ungar

What will you give up for this season,
to help life along
in its curious reversals?
As if we had a choice.
As if the world were not
constantly shedding us
like feathers off a duck's back--
the ground is always
littered with our longings.

You can't help but wonder
about all the heroes,
the lives and limbs sacrificed
in their compulsion toward the good.
All those who dropped themselves
upon the earth's hard surface--
weren't they caught in pure astonishment
in the breath before they shattered?

Forget sacrifice.  Nothing
is tied so firmly that the wind
won't tear it from us at last.
The question is how to remain faithful
to all the impossible,
necessary resurrections.

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