Author: Elizabeth Maynard

Second from the left
I'm the one you want to kiss
just don't know it yet

How often do we pull each other back
from edges without knowing?
Like that time you
round-cheeked and innocent
found me in the midst
of my adolescent misery
asked if I would join the party
come and share the cake

I passed another night
sleeping here with the dead

They neither menace nor frighten
but gently remind

I must rise to meet the day
not only living but alive

I met you on this corner
flushed from too much drinking
and a brisk walk
in the cool early evening
here in this moment utterly alive

A story can change:
old oak split by lightning scar
welcomes spring blossoms

You warned me about things
I couldn't see coming
I turn my head
check my mirrors
but the one to fear
is what I never see
present, invisible
this blind spot wide
and deep enough
to consume us both

Today you see the emptiness
in all you thought you built
the cities for the workers
who never came
wide dusty avenues
untroubled by cars
and this wind whistling
round the corners and edges
You free yourself to walk
barefoot
to all the places you heart once lived
where you knew what it was to breathe
deep and easy

When you let me go
I rise swiftly and surely
on my own soft wings

Thank you for asking
I will hold your little hand
as we ride the sky

You smile at me and I remember
why I loved you in my little way
But this time I cannot make
myself small like that again
your love must be so much bigger