On Reading Tu Fu’s “I Stand Alone”

Heaven’s ways include the human:   

among a thousand sorrows, I stand alone   

                                                             Tu Fu

I wake to a siren fading in distance

jaunting, playful murmurs of kittens

sparrows’ songs caress the morning heat

a young man shouts boldly a half-a-block distance

the roar of a motorcycle squeals past my window

the deep bellow of distant thunder,

with each deep breath

release:

Heaven’s ways include the human

even among a thousand sorrows . . .

I

am

not

alone