After Jubilate Deo by Christopher Smart
For she absorbs chaos as sponge absorbs spill.
For she ingests the blare-bursting, gas-burning
hell-making steel-plastic uproar
of 21st century highways.
For she soothes what is driven by the driven.
For she calms pandemonium.
For she offers glimpses of solace to hogs, cows
and hens destined for slaughter.
For her astonishingly blue petals unfurl at first light
and begin to fade by noon.
Let us all praise her ablutionary, alleviatory nature
For she is the humblest of all the alchemists.
For she stands up to the hottest of noon-June highways
For she is the coolest of the blues.
Julie Berry has published three collections of poetry – worn thresholds (Brick) 1995, reprinted 2006, the walnut-cracking machine (Buschek) 2010, and most recently, the chapbook, I am, &c. The Gilbert White Poems (Baseline Press) 2015. Poems have appeared in Arc Poetry Magazine, Grain, Malahat Review, etc. She lives in St. Thomas, Ontario.
