It is effortless to love the beautiful,
to choose the beautiful.
But it is not effortless for me.
For what I choose
would be the three legged dog
because its heart is huge.
The cleft palette
because of eyes that bewitch me
with their soul.
A speckled apple for being held
by my beloved.
Salt rather than the diamond,
for its taste.
A hard scrabble road
for the poet living there.
The plain woman for bearing divinity.
A broken bell above a ruined church,
for faith,
and everything beautiful that dies,
because it would not choose,
and be unworthy of itself.
The book The House of the World has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and is now available on Amazon.