a little flash poetry, for Steph Kent
Amidst yet another abstract conversation
among the wisest of men
Steph showed up fully
asking:
I’d be interested,
if you’re game to share,
what you found after the failure of forgiveness?
Oh!
lovely witness
question
muse
you
Thank you for asking.
I said Hmm
I felt emptiness
letting go
lightness: a weight lifted, gravity shifted
rest
peace
quiet
getting to know a new me
new eyes
toddling around on small shaky feet
then new stories
new energy, new power.
I became a mermaid, then a dragon.
much unexpectedly later one day
sipping peppermint tea in my deep velvet blue chair
forgiveness was just there, like cat hair
Not commanded or demanded or even wanted.
always present
stuck to my socks and gray pants
tiny halos of stubborn presence
The wisest of men
showed back up again
something about us having strayed off topic
but like always, they were just a moment late
The muse was present.
she swept us up in a wind that wrapped around a distant star
so by the time they tried to ground us
we could only see starlight
could only hear ourselves:
the wind, the muse
the questions, the answers
and the women —
calling everything forth