Sunday, April 3, 2011

The Simple Depth (like a well)


She is taking off her skin, a frantic crabwise reptilian repetition.  One breath at a time, she rips apart the scaly exterior.  Sometimes only one small piece ebbs aside, revealing the promise of something shiny, clean and free. 

Turning the clock to her own century—with her own fleeting will—she faces her death with simple fascination. 

Climbing through, and wading in, and flailing about.  She seeks the tattered detritus of her worn-out heart.  To hold it all tight.  And to hold it out with the same words newly spoken: “This is all I got.”  She seeks paper-thin healing that will never come.  And the clarity that always runs. 

She is running; running and running.  Tears sway along her cheeks.  Fastened to the horizon, her bright beautiful eyes scream with determined sacrifice.  She pulls at her chest, forcing off her breast the second to last piece of what had once been.  With every effort releasing what she wanted to become, what she wanted to believe. 

She has changed her fixation.  It is now upon the simple depth like a well: of hands held, lips kissing, collectives crying, gifts given, and time taken.

And then, in a quick succession, she fails to take another step.  The moving stops, and she trips, and the very last scale on her chin scrapes away as she hits the fierce ground.  And she stands up again, nonplussed.  The stillness in the air encapsulates her like… humidity.  Like lightning it takes her breath to a new place, opens her fiery spirit to unknown tears.  She weeps now, for the torrid animal inside her—caged and raddled.  She weeps for years of loss, of sickness, of change. 

Then the wind arrives again, quieting her primal moaning.  Quieting, slowly.  Quieting, quieting, quieting, quieting, quieting… 

Then the wind takes her.  And she stands again. 

She is taking off her skin, a frantic crabwise reptilian repetition.  One breath at a time, she rips apart the scaly exterior.  Sometimes only one small piece ebbs aside, revealing the promise of something shiny, clean and free. 

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