SACRED TRUST (Lyrical Iowa, 1992)

My spirit has always been kin
to the fragile, the broken, the suffering.
I have known the gossamer touch of a butterfly
as it lit upon my hair.
A black cat, once kicked about the street by ruffian boys,
has curled up on my lap and purred.
I have been playfully nuzzled by a dappled pony
that had lived in terror of the whip.
And I have been blessed with the love
of a sad and lonely boy
who had known only pain and despair.
I hold sacred the trust
of the fragile, the broken, the suffering.