Poem: I Do Not Know

I Do Not Know

what can be saved
or who, or how
or if it is possible
to bring this back,
though back is wrong,
is not where it must go,
but any of it, all of it?
Who can say?  It must be done,
it must be done.  We must do it.
We cannot know how
or if our hands or backs will break,
if their is too much already
that has gone against us,
if their is nothing else left.
It has all eroded, has fallen,
has changed.  It was tarnished,
was marked and stained,
but it was not this, not yet,
now: what can be done?
I do not know,
but I know we must do it,
even if we do not know what,
do not know how:
I know we must do it.

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