i.
Words flow from me like a river. Warm in my
belly they sit like soup. Gently, with butterfly like fingers, like soft,
flowing ribbons they caress my insides. “Speak your truth,” They whisper to me.
I barely have the ears to listen. Like a
river it flows from me, pain like a white, radiant light comes from my spine,
my shoulders, and my hips. This pain transforms. It spins me like a
spider weaving its web, stitching into me fibers of silver and gold. Stories
balance precariously on my tongue and I soak up information, lapping it up like
a dog, drinking it in like a traveler in the desert thirsty for a cool drink.
Transformed, spinning in this web, I shift and change. Truths are spoken and
tiny hands pick up each heel, pressing me onward. Their belief, this radiant
form of love, it changes me. With a gentle
spirit I open myself upwards to the sun, letting the rays and all their glory
penetrate my very being. The babbling brook whispers my name and her laughter
catches the wind. I have folded myself into this universe, wrapped myself in
the golden rays of the truth. Wrapped in sunlight and silk from the spider’s
web, I walk forward.
ii.
The world
is not my playground. Thoughts spiral
down, around, thoughts of love and loss and forever. I thought I knew what
these things meant, once. But as it would seem, I am an impostor, lying in my
own skin. I do not know the meaning of these delicately bound objects. Who does
know, I wonder, as I watch the robin build his nest for the coming summer. I
feel the sun on my shoulders, the grass under my bare feet. I have it hanging
on my wall: love, and yet I am bereft to find the meaning. Because once I
thought I loved you, and you were afraid and fled. And I understand, my
darling. And yet I dreamt of losing you and I fought against time and space to
save you. Your brow is knit tight, your lips pursed closed, and I wonder at
your thoughts. I’d throw a penny in every wishing well for you to tell me your
utmost desires. What is it that keeps you up all night? What is it that makes
your heart sing? What is it, my love? What is it that makes you angry and what
makes you at peace? But, like the robin, you are just beyond my reach. And so I
will sit in silence, watching, marveling at the beauty that you are. I will
watch as you fly away. And I will hope for the day you will come back to my
tender garden. I will wait for the day when the beauty of a robin will finally
be enough for my wandering heart.
iii.
The memory of you is stored there. Right there,
in the pocket of empty space running up my spine, from my tailbone into my
shoulders. Some days I scarcely notice the ache from the absence of you. Other
days it is all I can think of. The missing is not so much pain, not anymore. It
isn’t joy either. I would say it is light grey, like the sun shining through
the clouds right before they are about to break after a rainstorm. The world
smells fresh and the earth is damp and if I sink my toes into it long enough, I
can feel you in the rain. It is stillness. The missing of you is stillness. It
isn’t a throbbing absence, not pulsating inside of me. It is more like this
empty pocket of space, just there. Most days it doesn’t hurt. It just feels
empty. And on those days I’ll put on your sweater, stand on the back porch and
wait for rain.
iv.
Soon this space will be too small. I push
against the edges of this old box. Like toes in shoes, I am pressed up against
the edges. I shift and make myself more comfortable in this space which I am
rapidly outgrowing. I feel the tension from being pressed tight, no room to
expand. So I must gain courage. I must walk in love, in truth. I must be
willing to lose sight of the shore, becoming vulnerable and taking risks. It is
there I will taste healing, savoring the taste of solace on my tongue, drinking
in marvelous beauty, open to embracing creativity and my truth. With one final
push this old rowboat is out to sea. My hands shake as I grip the oars, pushing
myself farther and farther away from the shore with each stroke.
Attraversiamo –
Let’s cross over.
v.
Something always brings me back to you. Like
tangles in my hair and the blue heart drawn on the inside of my favorite pair
of jeans. It’s a touch stone, I think. It’s like the universe holds it breath
in anticipation for this moment, the moment I’ll come back. Because I always
do. I’m a gypsy at heart but I can never stay gone for long. I tell myself I’m
really leaving this time but we both know it’s a lie. I’m not capable of
leaving. I will always come back, floating in on the wind. It’s because you’re
a touch stone. It’s because, hard as I try, I can never look into my eyes
without seeing the reflection of yours.
vi.
And so I wait. For love, for peace, for reunion,
for words that last longer than a few moments, for a place my body knows how to
stay. I build myself into people. There’s a piece of me there, right under your
left ear, and that person has a tiny piece on their big toe. I toss my heart
like ashes in the wind and hoping where they fall will be somewhere safe. That’s
why I spend so much time running, I think. I’m trying to find myself. I’ve
forgotten that here already holds the biggest piece of me.
vii.
I ask my empty hands what it all means. I ask
myself what it means to love, to let go. I feel the empty space as I sit and I
wonder how much longer I will feel the absence like the lack of fluid around my
spinal column. I ask them what it means. I ask them if this time I’m
really letting go.
viii.
My hands have yet to write the answer.
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