Hope is a Hymn

a tanka sequence, in response to Emily
Dickinson’s ‘Hope is the thing with feathers’

she steps in spring
beneath a lazuli sky
waking buds
stars fallen from the night
with eyes that smile

paintbox parrots
robed in red and green
catch the breeze
skimming over grasses
sing dawn’s eternal hymn

if this is how
it was when we began
she muses let it stay
when each of us is done
with our time and place

her hope
that all will learn to love
the fragile earth
above that other wealth
bought at its expense