So Much Love

by Neeli Cherkovski

so much love
that I want to hide from love
I sit in the garden behind our house
on Bernal Hill thinking rose, tree fern
watching the hummingbird
not a griever or a communist, not
a believer or a capitalist
so much murder
in the name of the people,
so much acrimony
poured into one corner
as the other corner
burns down to a raw nerve
so many experts
on love and fond
regard who choose
the oppressor to
oppress, so many
who know so much
so safe to feel protected
by those who know, those who
love
I wait on the hummingbird
as (he or she) it flits over the fence
carrying no banner save that of a primal dream
of flight and of standing solid mid – air
and it is so all rig