“Kingdom Rise and Kingdom Fall” - new work from this afternoon

“Kingdom Rise and Kingdom Fall”

I got my ears plugged into

the Wailing Souls’  “Kingdom Rise

and Kingdom Fall”

as the temperature

of this early June day

rises to sun-drenched wet heat

and then comes “Busnah, your time

will come,” in the same warm

and generous harmonies

and slow roots riddim

and righteousness rises

in sound and vapor and collects

in the clouds and attaches itself

to the drops of heated, risen moisture

and all coalesces into rain

and it all comes down in a mighty

downpour, righteousness and water,

and rather than shield ourselves

with rubber or goretex from

the deluge we raise our eyes

to the sky and smile from within

and let the water cleanse our faces

of all the false facets of our invented

personalities and made-up masks

and after the storm the air is suffused

with all things and we are lifted up

by “the unbearable lightness of being”