The Pillar Poem by Robert Creffield

Many times the dust fell into my eyes
and the sand gave way to the tide for I
was familiar back then with the vagaries
of fortune as I sat breath-bated at the
rolling dice or cowed at the black crow's
squawking portent to a calamitous event.

I learned to run when the sky grew dark
and avoided the trees when thunder
struck but still fate tripped my feet and I
swung on the pendulum of chance
sometimes lucky sometimes not, always
anxious with qualm and nervous of flight.

A ragged man cursing when the moon
waned black I went from failure to fortune
with knotted fingers and a twitching eye
gritting my teeth just before dawn when
the mind bends with pain and exaggerates
a small loss or a disappointing gain.

Often times I would reach for you then
in the lantern lit loch of night just to touch
your skin of the sacred womb where our
babies had swum alone but for your blood
and warmth and connected thought,
protected in that sanctuary pool of care.

There they suckled your heavenly milk of
fortitude and like them I prospered from
your proximity, emboldened by your calm
and grace, your metier, solid as granite, we
anchored secure, all your family, in the joy
of your love, by the pillar of your strength.