A Poem About Blessings (for Someone I Love)

Today is the 60th birthday of someone I love, so I searched various archives for a poem about blessings. This one wasn't what I was envisioning, and it isn't particularly relevant to the occasion, but it made me smile, and upon further reflection, I have to say that this person I love does indeed live and work so hard, God’s love washes right through him.  

(The guy in the picture ascending the hill is the birthday boy...)

THE BLESSING of the OLD WOMAN, the TULIP, and the DOG by Alice Suskin Ostriker

To be blessed

said the old woman

is to live and work

so hard

God’s love

washes right through you

like milk through a cow

To be blessed

said the dark red tulip

is to knock their eyes out

with the slug of lust

implied by

your up-ended skirt

To be blessed

said the dog

is to have a pinch

of God

inside you

and all the other

dogs can smell it

“The Blessing of the Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog” from The Book of Seventy, by Alicia Suskin Ostriker, © 2009