"Five Wishes" by Anne Porter

Kacho Fugetsu, Mid-nineteenth century, Meiji period, lithograph

I’d like to have a wild bird

Perch on my hand

A sparrow or

A chickadee

Sudden with her sharp feet

And fragile daring

I’d like to see again

The etchings Rembrandt made

Of stories from the Bible

Though they’re as plain

As Bethlehem’s hay

A radiance fills them

And I would like to visit

The Laguna Indians

And their old church

Made of whitewashed clay

With logs for rafters

And in it their Madonna

To whom they’ve given

A white lace apron

And I would like to learn

To accept my death

To accept our dying

That strange dawn

So deeply scandalous

That God himself wept

At the death of his friend

I’d like to find

The shrine of Chimayo

Where the lame leave crutches

I’d like to go there

With my daughter Katie

It would be enough

Just to be there

Without any miracle.

"Five Wishes" by Anne Porter from Living Things. © Zooland Books, 2006.