​What If the Sky Could Help Us, by Teresa Williams

Sand Dunes at Sunset, Atlantic City, by Henry Ossawa Tanner (USA) 1885

​What If the Sky Could Help Us

I listen to the news of another war,
chopping onions on this early October night.
I put the knife down but feel like screaming at every man. 
Then, I remember Sand Dunes at Sunset, Atlantic City.
That vast sky, sugary and glistening with peaches,
offering sweetness to the windswept world.
I take a deep breath.  Visualize the two faint ships
adrift in the bright melancholy of the ocean.
Let myself sail with them, like a tired seabird on a mast.
I feel myself relaxing.  The wild shaking of rage
turning into something else, something far
less ruinous.  What if I could study the sky
for a few moments, like here, from the kitchen window,
to become spacious and quiet, to become
inclusive of every changing cloud and colour?
What if my habits of hurting others,
could be altered?  And if I look long enough,
amazed at the alchemy, at the sun’s fathomless
art, I could evolve. 
 
Teresa Williams
 
Teresa Williams is a poet living in Seattle, Washington. Her work has been featured in Psychological Perspectives, Lily Poetry Review, Third Wednesday, and elsewhere. When she isn’t writing she likes to wander near mountains and rivers with her wolfdog. She received an MFA in poetry at Pacific University.