Opacity

You should do what you desire

what if tomorrow all your chances 

are desiccated into dust

what if the thread of possibility is cut

what if the words you hold within

burn themselves up

and nothing is left but ash 

and the core of you is fireless. 

If you go tomorrow into the next world 

I will never have found 

messages hidden in the tree hollow

to read what is in the heart of you

how many years have we spent

disguising ourselves in new ways

for each encounter 

what if we brought our unarmored

faces and spoke the truth 

what would be lost of our pride

if we showed how we are vulnerable.

A wise friend told me once

you have to open the door 

at least a little to let people in

you have to leave the door open

and I thought about all the locks 

leading to my apartment 

and told him that the door was open

but both the apartment door

and the door to me

were triple locked at least and

it has taken at least this long

for me to feel the walls of ice

melting around me 

so I could start to free myself. 

Fifteen years of winter 

is a long time 

no wonder I am 

wild with the joy of it 

and that everyone

is watching with concern

wondering what I will become

a torrent of water

a raging fire 

or a flower.