They found themselves a little reluctant
to part with their coinage,
dear bought as it was, fraught with
wrenching choices and sacrifice
and the tippy balance point
of fate and luck. They’d be happy
to give up their losses,
but maybe not their wins,
so they held on, though the corrosion
hurt them

They needed to get a sense of
what they wouldn’t lose
and what they’d gain
by letting go of all that they were grasping,
to feel, instead, the dawn upon their foreheads,
the bright glow that smoothed their brows,
the kindling excitement of laying hold
on that darting liquid light
of true worth.
Then they would know,
then they could let go.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 1, 2017