Yielding
to pain, with love
The urge to run visits repeatedly yet unpredictably A chilling urgency and dread now almost familiar And not entirely unwelcome Pushing up and out from the deep place and somehow also pressing down An inescapable force from every direction Flattening all horizons Threatening to tear and remove flesh from breath Choke this tiny heart and extinguish agni With a type of violence it screams at me to MOVE! But my limbs do not heed I do not run I sit or stand or walk or lay I cry or laugh or sing or wail I cocreate I allow its demands to be spoken and I yield but but do not run I surrender yet maintain my claim to love and all its consequence I invite my new friend in from the bitter cold Come, sit, rest safely with me here by the fire In the warm pain of loss we coexist This is how I survive