As if randomly,
through some searing memories
I find myself
fallen between the ribs of normalcy,
lodged in the space between
what I thought and what I’ve come to understand
stuck in a place where I can only cry
“save, or I perish”

Part of me thinking,
are tears so bad, anyway?
Is this agony, or is it just
the stretching of my face
and of the inside of my mouth?

What carried me this far
will carry me all the way.
To the almighty, it doesn’t matter
if my salvation took a thousand years
or one day,
I am not tardy,
I am not far from home —
wait for the clearing,
for surely it will come.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 26, 2017