Instantaneous Telos

While I was resting, in joy
In a space of time, while
I slept, while I stretched,

I had the ability to forget
What I meant without fear
Of faith, fact, or contradiction.

No one could speak against me
While I remained, prone in prayer
And of no conquest since the Fall.

Here I make a mistake. Here
I pretend to a nobility no
Lord knows. I am not that

In the trees where branches sing
In the storm that has no reason
To be impressed previous

Trees survived worse so these
Which may or may not survive
Could thrive, a human voice

Trained by centuries of mountain
Generations to carry a tune
In a message while a storm

Causes those same breaking trees
To compete for song, yodels
Down to a servant soul, remote:

"You are not allowed
To while away your time,
Because your time belongs to life,

To body, yours or mine, to voice,
To survival, to lust, to mistakes
Wise or foolish. You are mine."