a few short miles

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fortunate are those
who find themselves in their place
and whose life flows gently around them
like a calm stream around a submerged rock

everything comes and goes

people come and go

and we, we stay just where we are

~

fortunate are those firmly rooted
whose life piles on like more topsoil
so that even a bitter wind changes nothing

~

when all is said and done
what matters may be how much we mattered
or else, how certain those remaining,
could feel that we have not truly left

~

the ties that come to bind us
together are Given and made

i get it, i finally get it
but maybe i got it too late

~

there’s nothing quite so wonderful as being alone
until alone is all that’s left

and we are left wondering how to catch
that train, that would have taken us on a known track
with known ones
and on which the only stops would have been
tenderness, love
and a little grief
for a few short miles,
before the end

leap

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remember the days when we were
so shocked and awed that something good was happening to us

that we enjoyed the thrill of the moment,
like the swift hop onto a moving cable car on its way up the mountain

and we were just thankful to have landed on our feet

~

these days we feel the ground beneath our feet all the time
yet the fear that pervades us is as though we were miles up
without a safety net

~

why has it become so easy to disregard an upswing
without it stirring up delight and amazement?

why has it become so difficult to not fear an impending downswing,
as though we are forgetting that misfortune is anything but stochastic?

~

we need to remind ourselves that
this has all been good, built on good

and may every leap we make be just like that first one,
free, unencumbered and full of hope