by Yvonne Higgins Leach
Be ready—the inevitable will come.
In bewilderment when what you longed for
didn’t come to be—a season ended too soon.
In the dazed drama of hope’s departure—
as she shrugs her anemic shoulders at you.
In the capsized moment when your mind
cannot bear the pain—and you drown.
You can choose how to endure.
Not through exile or hermetic positioning,
not through seeing only scraps or fibers,
not by hauling around a convincing state of mind,
or what you think is a cure for suffering.
No, by trusting in the simultaneous beauty of
comings and goings
appearing and disappearing
un-forming and re-shaping.
You can shape your life to the end.
Just as you begin to understand the world,
the world that birthed you into light and breath,
the world that now prepares to take you away,
you accept the invitation that morning offers
as it lights up the neighboring field in white sunlight,
the ground sharp with clouds’ shadows,
and the birds rejoicing in their throaty practicing.
Category: Poetry, SNHU Creative Writing, SNHU online creative writing