Birthday Prayer

I want to live wildly serene

like spindrift flying off an ocean wave

sparkling in afternoon sunshine;

I want to live like the 10 year-old boy

dipping low to sneak a sniff of his grouchy

neighbor’s pink rose, savoring each inch

of smell that meets a happy nose;

I want to live like an old woman

sipping coffee in Autumn, wrapped

in her favorite sweater, remembering

her first love; I want to live like a waterfall

plunging at trail’s end down 100 feet

of granite onto a laughing man exulting

below, his tingling pink skin soaked

forever, like a cloud his upturned face

bows before his god; yes! I want to live

like Walt Whitman singing of himself

and everyone who has lived while he dances,

wrestling with his pals in the basement,

and those multitudes he contains.