My Oldest Dearest Friend

The holder of my heart 

The seat of my soul

Young girl running, playing, hiking in woods 

Laying in tall grass contemplating the universe out there and in here

Sunkissed, wind touched skin

Vanquished abuser - one word, feet planted, straight back

Cared for siblings with gentle hands and fearful heart

The vessel for my children 

Survivor of a difficult delivery and a silent heartbeat 

Repository of the potential and fulfillment of creativity

Bearer of scars from falls and broken hearts

World traveller, spirit at peace, finding reflections of itself in Asma, Sofia, Faysal - countless hearts speaking to mine

Beautiful to the grandmother on the elevator, the man on the subway

Salsa Queen birthed from African and Indigenous rhythms, bound to ancestors through melody and movement 

The tether of  my soul in this first life, each phase full of learning, growth that I my take with me when the tether is no more

Learning to love with grace, compassion, authenticity all the phases as time passes. 

Gratitude for my oldest, dearest friend. 

10 Years In Tears

Time slips between fingers

Opened in submission 

Clutched in desperation 

Flying by a train's window 

Sliding off a plane's wing

Time trapped in memory 

becomes nostalgia. 

Dissipates in the breaths

of goodbye

Dies on the whispered hopes

of a child 

Collapses woman into girl

with the necessity of survival 

Light returned to sun across 

the soul's infinity 

Ten years in tears 

Ten years in laughter

Ten years in dance

Time does not heal all wounds.