#Living Psalm 98_Anderson May 12, 2024, due April 28

By Eric S. Anderson
The song proclaims victorious triumph
visible and audible to all,
a marvel to its witnesses,
a testimony to the might of the Divine.
Are they the victories I’ve known?
I’ve seen ohi’a seeds, the grains of dust
upon the wind, find soil in the rifts
of lava rock. They’ve rooted, raised
their shoots, bloomed incarnadine.
I’ve seen kolea who have made their first
unguided flight across half the Pacific reach
the island where they’ll winter far from the
Alaskan shores on which they broke their shells.
I’ve seen the child, brought by parents to
a crowd of strangers, shrink into her mother’s arms,
then, having found her treasurers, offer them
with beaming smile to these, her new-found friends.
These are the victories I’ve known.