Inside the pause it was forever

After "Breve Pausa"

Mural. Mancos, Colo.

I am afraid to write about love 
in the present tense.
You prefer concrete pictures
but these days I tiptoe in metaphor.
After all the months of madness, 
floods of meanness, and
whorling anxieties,
I needed to remember
who I was, who I'd been--
anything with flavor slash taste.
I needed to stop 
shoving everything away,
so I went ahead
and fell in love.
There were no proclamations:
no one needed to know 
because it was 
only a pause, 
a balm,
a rest stop where
cold water flowed
from the drinking fountain,
where the road noise receded and 
the cows over yonder lowed.
Inside the pause
it was forever ...
time outdid herself, and
I succeeded in my
quest to feel again.
It wasn’t one night
or an afternoon delight.
Days swayed into eons,
swept up then 
put up, so that I could 
feel the truth again. 
I’ll never say 
it ended, though
it did.
Where does the
seed of a dandelion
on the wind
end, and the 
new flower begin? 
Inside the pause
it was forever.

---

April 23rd is today! Continuing NaPoWriMo for day 23.

This is poem is from Prompt #3 from this evening’s WWKC (Salt Tooth) writing workshop. The poem Breve Pausa is the inspiration.

Thanks as always to

Frances Story

for leading a terrific workshop.