Open wider
than you ever have before
to light the darker corners
of your mouth
as it lets go
its burden.

After collecting dust balls
from along the baseboards,
I couldn’t think of anything else
to do on my knees
so I sat back and looked out the open door
to a rolling vista that looked like
whale flukes on parade,
with leafy trees fluttering along the edges
forming double-helix bursts of soothing light
as the sun filtered through
onto the floor before me.
If a grimy girl can sense a prayer
amid nonsense, this was such a moment.

Length of day is immaterial,
talking becomes irrelevant.
Walk on soft darkening forest earth
until legs give way
or every prayer’s been spoken
and sent up emptying branches.
We hold sway over loss
with gentle pressure, moving together.

How many signs needed
I wonder
after the heron
and rainbow
took my morning thunder
and turned it into
something softer…
why continue to look
for something I suspect
I already hold,
like a shadow in check
or my elbow after bumping it
or even a laugh
when the world kicks me again.