I Believed

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The day I knew that I believed
it was not on the word of a sage or a holy woman
nor was it sermon spoke or verse quoted

it was a tree that stood yelling in my backyard
it was the eye, half closed, of a tiny girl child
it was that when I fell to the floor and wailed a million losses,
my father knelt beside me and held my back.

in the last moment-- it was that I cannot ever see a horizon
without longing seeping out from under my eyelids and leaping towards it

the day I knew that I believed took five years

and was over
in exactly
three seconds.

And now I am His.

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