All It Takes

The winter light is fractured,
this season mornings are so dark.
I can’t even read the paper
without really trying hard.

Fog is billowing around me
and I can’t see a thing.
Once again, I have forgotten
what I was supposed to bring.

If my hands don’t stay busy,
I’m afraid my heart will stop.
Will this steady turn to distance?
A new fear circles like a hawk.

Does it even matter
if I’m tired, if I break?
Get to work, it’s time to move.
All you’ve got is all it takes.
All you’ve got is all it takes.

Mama always told me,
when you don’t know where you are,
to stop, be still, and listen,
until you hear it from afar.

I hear beauty in the city,
a chorus fighting through the din.
It is ringing in the alley
from without and from within.

Does it even matter
if I’m tired, if I break?
Get to work, it’s time to move.
All you’ve got is all it takes.
All you’ve got is all it takes.