Some Higher Life Forms Have Returned (3rd place in our Women’s Writing Contest)

 

Welcome to the woolen nest of my heart
A tiny airhole opened to the brisk wind of a new year
A little oxygen to feed the fire

And who are you? Let me strike a match
All the better to see you in the crisp night
Under white stars, under glaring moon

We can pass the orange ember between us
A small dot of light yielding buoyant clouds
A heat that shrinks the distance
Is that a knowing glint in your eye?
Shyly, I decide it is only a streetlight

Tell me where your mind has traveled
Tell me how you got here, or
How things came down to you
Tell me how your thoughts tumbled like bone dice
Into new formations, plans, ideas
Tell me the vintage of each of your pains

What a relief, after this empty season
To drum my fingertips on a steel body
And find music along the bridge
It turns out we are not alone

Even if our forms are not ideal
Even if we cannot do what we are meant to do
Perhaps help is on the way
A mysterious balancing cocktail

Some Higher Life Forms Have Returned