Is it OK to take a moment
before I step back
from the dry path of sadness,
to feel the desolation
before turning back to green?

It isn’t forbidden
but why I seem to want this
eludes me. this path was fruitless
even before the hope died,
it was a way I would have wasted
life energies and time

Well, being here, feel it —
feel the hollow wind
sucking at the dry rocks,
feel the hunger, feel the sorrow,
feel it for as long as you may need to

Then you can turn yourself,
and live.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 18, 2019