While Waiting for the Fever to Break

(October 24 is celebrated as “United Nations Day,” 
commemorating the entry into force in 1945 of the U.N. Charter, whose text can be
referenced at https://www.un.org/en/about-us/un-charter/full-text)

While waiting for the fever to break,
I apply cold compresses and administer aspirin,
trying to remember not to exceed the recommended dose.
I pray, and pray, and pray some more.
I tell others and myself “I love you,” over and over, fervently.
I hum lullabies and songs of peace.
I crave quiet. I shy away from news and opinion.

While waiting for the fever to break,
I try to damp down feverish attempts to “make the world safe,”
be they my own or others’.
I search to find and support more measured changes toward
whatever the world wants to become.
I meander around the nearby detritus of prior conflicts, wondering at the
residual scars.
I gravitate toward the small patch of cleared ground where a group of us is
learning organic gardening.
Well before dawn, jarred awake by a buzzing phone, I ask the still-dark sky for wisdom.
The stars shine an answer, one I’ve too often forgotten:
“No one is an absolute owner; we are all, rather, temporary stewards.”