Above Ground

by Clint Smith

What is the difference between science and a miracle other than discovering new language for something we don’t understand?

Perhaps if the continents had never shaken themselves

free we might find ourselves disabused of this apathy. Perhaps if we could hear the bomb dropping, we might imagine what would happen if it struck our own homes. I am nostalgic for a proximity that may not have mattered.

And this is what I hope you have learned of us. That we took this skin and transformed it into song. That we can call for freedom and sing sweet jubilee all in the same breath.