Merciful Feel Good

Is there mercy? Can there be?
There are acts of clemency,
Public displays of mercy

By those temporarily
Empowered to grant such things,
But of the mercy of gods

Or of natural forces
There’s only the word in prayer.
Yes, we know. Sometimes it feels

Like a mercy, a song bird,
A lull in panic and pain—
And the researchers agree

That nurturing gratitude
For such merciful moments
Might as well be medicine.

But human society
Doesn’t structure the cosmos.
The bird sings for bird reasons.

The clouds recycle water
In the self-consuming sun,
And the body, more ancient

In most respects than human,
Will continue to produce
Hand-me-down panics and pains.

Someday there won’t be mercy
Of even the social kind—
This species, its strategies,

Are no more eternal than
Other species’ strategies.
Some days, still, life will feel fine.