Max Reif - Under the Blue Sky

I can't reconcile
myself to what goes on
under the blue sky,

that unifying symbol,
Glory painted right above us
in case we ever needed a reminder
of how One all life is &#151

under this miraculous dome
that gives our breath and breezes,
whose spinning molecules
of dervish ozone dance
in my eyes, propelling
my entire being into ecstasy
just from sticking my head
out the door in the morning.

And yet under this blue
sky atrocities go on,

nine million killed,
for example,
in the trenches
of World War I,
many on a beautiful
day like this one.

I don't have to recite
the litany of modern history,
you were there or
you read or heard
about it, and if not,
look at yesterday's papers,

and closer to home
I often struggle in my own life
like a fish who can barely
suck oxygen through his gills.

Life seems to be made
for contemplation
of this conundrum &#151
hell and purgatory continue
to stage their dramas on earth,
yet I know this world
can only be Heaven

under the gorgeous Unity
of the one, life-giving
blue sky.

Max Reif

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/under-the-blue-sky/