please

please

if you are one who has practice meeting the pain of the world,

we need you

right now we need you to teach us it is possible to swallow what is

weighty and still be able to rise

we need you to remind us we can be furious

and scared and near feral over injustice 

and still thrill at the taste of a strawberry,

ripe and sweet

can still meet a stranger and shake their hand,

believing in their humanness

we need you to show us how we, too, can fall

into the darkest, unplumbed pit and learn there

a courage and beauty we could never learn

in the light

if you have drowned in sorrow and still have

somehow found a way to breathe, please,

lead us

you are the one with the crumbs we need,

the ones we will use to find our way back

to the home of our 

hearts

by rosemerry wahtola trommer