I fear
I think
Efficiency
outranks
Humanity.

karoline strickland
I fear
I think
Efficiency
outranks
Humanity.


So much of who I was – before –
I’ve folded up and filed away.
Sometimes – opening a long-forgotten drawer – I find myself there, shelved, sleeping,
and I gaze with wonder – and the faintest stir
of recognition.
Do you ever wonder what it would be like
to hear yourself?


To befriend the outcast and the lowly requires this:
to first believe they are infinitely valuable.
Many of us – it seems –
(I wonder why)
lead lives
of quiet
little
undigested
traumas.

Stripped.
On knees.
Washing feet stained with dirt and sticky with muck
A mother’s life
A neighbor’s life
A Savior’s life.
“Spiritual” –
a word that sends us running, as if from
rattling guns.

I have spread myself like a net to catch beautiful things.
A severe and difficult endeavor.