I tried to pull myself away
from images from someone else’s life,
considered if another night
of dreams not quite my own
was in store for me

In the end, the tendency
to hang my life like laundry,
to scrutinize it in the light of others’ stories
is nothing that can help me

We will all meet up together
on the deeper plane
far more important
than the holes and stains
in my shirts or in my narrative  –
this source we share
that lets us recognize each other,
this source that lets us recognize ourselves.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 28,  2021