This American Life

Matthew Lawrence Campbell

Coursing deeper than
coincidence, and the meaning
we try
and cobble from it,

Deeper still than the
utterances of our newspaper augurs, or
that special kind of benevolence
we call “miracle,”

There is the commingling
of Blood -
yours, mine, and
Lamb’s.

A shooting star alights
while we kiss in the twilight:
might portend something –
might not.

So, too, might the fact
that we knew each other
for a time
as kids

We try. God,
do we try.

But there is a harrowing
with which, despite ourselves,
we cannot contend, cannot
undo

One which will despoil
us of what we arrange
so delicately, like crystal,
in the reliquary of the heart.

The only thing, therefore:
to feel the magnitude of it all
become music in the clear
night air,
become dancing.

Matthew Lawrence Campbell
Poet & Writer

Matthew has been published in Macrina Magazine

Photography by Jonathan Marchal

Ekstasis Magazine