I had a hunger today
that paced around looking
for what would satisfy,
coming up short
time and time again

I wanted that hardwood core,
that heartwood coal
whose glow spread clear and even
with a heat that burnt through
all illusions,
resolving the confusions
of generations of lost souls,
the weariness, the giving up,
the vague loss of attention
that set us drifting
(even as I was today)
in search of something
we have lost the definition for

So to become lost
in a body not of my choosing,
so to be self-punished
for all my shortcomings

When truthfully the center
of my satisfaction
is something that I own
and am able to fulfill,
daily, in the moments of my knowing,
here, in the place I am aware.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 17, 2017