Then Looking Up

Psoas

long as the stars

hang in the sky

still

The ankle bone is connected

to the cervical spine

Then

Looking

Up

I wrote this a bunch of years ago. I have shared it 2 other times; this is the third. Both times, the reaction was silence, no comment.

The first time to the man I was dating, a chiropodist. I didn’t write it for him, but I knew he would understand the references, and it was a piece of me he would never have seen before. The writer.

The second time, I shared it as a “gift” to a women’s mastermind. We were each to bring something to the call as a gift for the group – a prayer, a totem, or a card reading. I brought this poem. The woman leading the call actually laughed, and did the “ah, ohhh-kay then” thing. It was odd, but also really funny.

Of course I was terribly embarrassed for a brief moment, but then the relief of sharing something I’d written, something that raw as this particular poem. It “came” to me, as all writing does. Out of the ether, on a whim, and gone through the next exhale. I’m so glad I held my breath to write it down.