Reflecting Pane #II

you

following a map of your reverses, to find yourself alone, sketched in pencil-thin lines. Arising darkness

you

drag damp disappointment, perish on the shores of sadness. Watch as everything passes by

you

arrive just in time — possessed by fragility, bathed in pewter shades of the Styx. An underworld vaca. Kind of last minute

you

scramble out an open window, breath caught. Exhale in misty tendrils of hope

you

waver upon the shores of cherished children, color over lines in bursts of pastel laughter, weave a lattice-work of trusted arms

you

gather your selves together. Your polished collection of vanities, lightly white-washed in humanity, miscellaneous piles of imperfection, blanket-balmed in security

you

stand upon the edge of wonder, this preposterous improbability, eve of evolution, beloved. Picking up a pencil to pollinate

one ripened word

into another

you

2–2019: Gratefully embracing three years since surgery for jaw cancer. Thanks for reading.

You can read Reflecting Pane I here.

You can read Reflecting Pane III here.