We are hungry for stories,
for story is the mind’s path,
the promise
that we could wend our way
out of the dullness of where we think we are
to something redemptive,
something we can almost taste

And we are foiled
by the devil’s practice
of shoving the tails of the stories
into their mouths, of making sure
they only lead us back
to the same place

We are foiled by opposition —
by the assertion
that stories require enemies —
good guys and bad guys,
even if only in our own minds

There is a truer story.
It exists in the place before the impulse,
before the thought. It exists
in searing lifting pure light
of your still unnamed desire,
and if you follow it,
it will lead you home.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 19, 2019