Dante's Heart
Jen McClung
Belief


    The barking wakes me, the
old brown Lab down the street.
Morning pauses in the dark, waits
to see what good will come of this.

   I do not bother to look,
I know the Wolf is there.

   In the dark of the morning,
I forget what I believe in, lose the thread
of what matters and what does not.

   The old Lab goes on barking.

   I believe in the dew
settled on the front lawn because
it is summer and humid. I believe
in the absence of bird song because
the sun has not yet risen. I believe
there are things I cannot reconcile:
belief in the divine, belief in the flesh,
the silence of the Wolf, the bark
of the Lab, belief in the heat,
belief in the snow,
the noise of the city,
the wind,
the quiet,
belief in
gravity.
   
   The Wolf limps off at sunrise.
What to believe in, then?