poem for pastors

i saw god. do you doubt it?
a sky that has never known sun, moon or stars
since, if you stood by my side today
do you think, my boy, when i put my arms around you
still thirteen years
out of the deep and the dark
some of the hurts you have cured
blossoms of babies
so lost
it was a tall young oysterman
soft as the bed in the earth
in his guarded tent
how wild, how witch-like weird that life should be
beside a stricken field