respect

we used to ask the children what it meant

to respect themselves, to respect their fellow farmers, to respect this place

(at this point we would have them crouch down and touch the earth which meant 

sticking their hands in the gravel that they were not supposed to play with, but would inevitably

giddy and gleeful with the rocks and gray clouds of dust).

I walk the streets of Madrid listening to Aretha Franklin sing 

Amazing Grace––suddenly unasked for the song comes to my mind

I once was lost, but now am found

Was blind, but now I see. 

(Aren't we all just searching for salvation?) And this is a live recording

even though I didn't realize it before

and the people are hooting and hollering and cooing and cackling and

Aretha is taking her sweet time between notes

and they are loving the space between the notes

almost as much as they are loving the notes themselves

they are roaring for the space between the notes

they are living as one with all the trust in the world for her 

with the deepest respect one could imagine

for her, only that which is everything, and how does one do that

for oneself? I wonder.