Elbow Grease and Forgiveness
By JB Bryan

if only for astonishment
     to stand in the middle of the driveway
          & look up into sparkling galaxies
     where light forms us all as lovers

     to live by imagination & one heart,
     to invent, to know, to play
               advises Max Jacob
          curtsy of every scuffling troubadour

beget of unexpected convergences
     actually a lot of elbow grease & forgiveness
     to stay experimental at all costs
          candlelight drawn with a knife

     why not make altars for the sake of altars?
     old trucks, old dogs, old cats, old grace
          when wind shakes the roof
               nails may or may not hold

thorny vines encircle a flame around our breath
     if someone offers an easy way out
          reply that you’d like to be dropped off
          in the vast sloppy middle of nowhere