A Simple Question Poem by Steven Federle

'While I am asking questions which You do not answer, You ask me a question which is so simple that I cannot answer. I do not even understand the question.' Thomas Merton, A Merton Reader,

'And He continued by questioning them, ‘But who do you say that I am? '' Mark 8: 29

Clear day
golden sky
gives way to
black clouds
and I ask,
'why? '

It's a child's question.

Within cities
hard edges, pavements
grey receive the red
tide, heads fall
and lives split open,
spill into
gutters fill,
sewers, fill
the sea,
and like a
persistent child
I ask 'why? '

In the morning
through bright
windows I see how
spring leans
to summer, timid
leaves open wide
glow in silver light
and green fire
fills the wood,

and by this beauty
silenced,
I hear
in tones
beyond my hearing
a simple question;

'who? '

but I cannot answer;

I do not
know.