Simplify {a poem}

Plus today's Hot Chocolate Run for Safe Passage

Photo by 愚木混株 Yumu on Unsplash

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We say it like it’s simple.
And then: Strip away markers
of identity. Face the space they filled.

Visibility became a drug, never enough,
a boulder, ever heavier, heaving
against an unrelenting algorithm.

​Were you special because you posted
a steady stream of encouragement,
beauty, mindful moments, insights?

Here you are, on the other side
of the crevasse you feared crossing,
another clearing. What have you found?

Nothing missing. Nothing missed.
Only the wish to tell the world:
I love you still and all the more,

from here, in a room, on a road,
surrounded by trees or buildings
or bodies or song.

​You there, who saw me only through
a screen, go outside now if you can.
Look at the sky.

Is it starry or light-polluted?
Cloudy or blue?
Near or far?

Imagine me standing next to you.
Does a day go by when death
doesn’t brush past?

Always on our way somewhere,
like the train whistle we hear
every few hours, a metronome.

Passengers, all of us.
Are you looking out the window
as life rushes by?

Someday is so close,
and always just beyond.
Keep reaching. Don’t wait for it.

Steady yourself.
Everything you don’t need
is nearly everything.

I remain greedy for what’s left.
The way your hand grazes my face.
The way coffee tastes in the morning.

The way music can course through me
and tears come, unbidden, at the last scene
before the credits roll.

Not even the poets can see.
But they tell us where to look – a field,
a memory, a fallen tower, a bedside, a birth.

Very little is up to us. But the mattering?
Nothing you do or don’t do will affect its value.
There is no market for the soul.

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In other news, my sister Joanna and I ran our annual 5K. The 22nd annual Hot Chocolate Run in Northampton raised a record amount (close to $900,000!) to support Safe Passage, a local nonprofit that addresses domestic violence.

I was also shocked to maintain just over an 11-minute mile and finish 38th out of 125 runners in my age group, given that my running habit has been spotty at best. Most importantly, we rallied each other to show up, had a blast, and got to be part of a fantastic event.

Before, after, and my stats 🤩

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