Every place we go back to, it seems,
presents another flood,
and surely it will cleanse us
and maybe it will drown us —
we can’t know until we go there
and go through —
there is no other way out

So we will hold each other’s hands,
we’ll go together,
we’ll be grateful for each sandbag
that kind people have thrown out
to shore us up, to lend support,
whether or not they feel they understand

We will go through —
who knows what
will be on the other side —
where we are now is all that we can know.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 3, 2018