Poetica Magazine
Poetica Magazine
Poetica Magazine
Hineini
by Laura Garfinkel
by Laura Garfinkel
We throw bread crumbs in the water.
Our mistakes will be eaten by salmon and ducks.
These are the Days of Awe, the New Year,
the time to discard irritation and impatience;
to toss out grudges and anger.
We have brought Dave’s Killer Bread
organic and whole grain, non-GMO.
They call themselves a company with soul.
Like Dave, once jailed, given a second chance
to join the family bakery, we choose life
with all its darkness, brokenness, ragged edges.
We resolve, once again, to go where the love is
and to hold a place of love for others.
We look to the river reflecting the blue sky
and the clouds; see our faces mirrored back to us.
We say Hineini, I am here. Here I am.
We think of all that can happen and change
in a single year, and how the future is so unknown,
uncertain. We lean on tradition
just as we find flat rocks upon which to stand.
We ask for help for the world, for ourselves
to do better, work harder, be kinder,
to be granted one more year of mercy.
We ache for more time, for renewal
like the salmon who run upstream to spawn,
exhausting themselves to dig nests in the gravel
in the very pursuit of perpetuating life.
About the Author
Laura Garfinkel is a retired social worker turned full-time poet living in Northern California. She has been published most recently in Feral: A Journal of Poetry and Art and Moss Piglet.