The Work at Hand

What’s required here

is to not be distracted —

The same old hand waves,

of course, will be employed,

and the frantic flashings

of threatened loss

if things should go a certain way.

You’re right to be on edge, we’re told —

The stakes are high

But none of this is true.

The only thing required

is to maintain the steady focus

of what puts us here, of what

maintains our being

The only thing required

is to be quite sure

of our inheritance —

the substance that outweighs the world.

©Wendy Mulhern

February 24, 2015