After we finished talking
(in patchwork mix of four imperfect languages)
She held my gaze
and held it
till it became a carrier wave,
and lacking words,
I let myself sink into prayer.
I sent it out across the visual tone
I found the place
where we are one
I found the power
present in the infinite,
the source we share
that nothing can assail.
She nodded understanding
as if I had been speaking.
(“Estoy orando” I said then;
“I am understanding,” she replied)
and we did another round,
silent, deeper
till I felt myself changed
in the broad terrain
where we found ourselves —
knew that this was somewhere
far more solid than the stories of our lives.
“I hope,” she said, in Portuspanish,
“someday I can do for someone
what you have done for me.”
“I’m sure,” I said in Spanish,
“that you will.”
©Wendy Mulhern
May 13, 2013