Enter the back field,

forgotten field,

the ignored place,

avoided place,

and wait.

In that expanse,

glacially, co-arising finds faces

to show you.

As knocking starts,

though there are no walls,

no door,

trust who comes…

Way out there on the dirt

created by every death ever,

soon enough including your own,

while it feeds infinite Life,

a quaking begins in your heart,

echoes of the pulsing earth upon which

you stand.

Do not run.

Throw off your shoes, find your feet,

let the soles of you do the listening.

As the countless losses

that have brought you to this moment

wash through, over and around you,

within those faces being shown,

greater understanding dawns–

eventually.

And though the grief you’ve held away,

both knowingly and not,

feels like it will do you in as, finally,

you agree to do more than encounter

this abiding friend,

how concrete and personal it all has seemed

now shimmers,

quivers,

like water,

like air,

and its permanence–never real–dissolves.

Traces remain,

beauty of fossils, of exoskeletons,

and strength to take another breath

is given,

not simply found.

Lightness accompanies darkness

in their timeless marriage

consciously

once again.