Contrast

While

Minneapolis is on fire

in subzero weather

with snow in abundance

and

Tehran the site

of thousands of freedom-

seeking martyrs

and

Gaza is buried beneath

a mountain of war-

ravaged rubble

and

Alex Honnold

free-soloed

Taipei Tower,

Waterville is still.

I can’t explain why God is patient.

Absent, it seems, and yet so near.