And as to why a word would lurk,
coming to mind, out of context,
amid no other thoughts,
I had no notion

But there it was again,
“spavined” — a word
I’ve never used,
a word I had to look up
when I found it
in someone else’s poem

Not that there’s no context
for such a word
in details of my life
but just — I wasn’t thinking it
yet there it was.

So this time I considered,
maybe this word has come to mind
for something in my life desiring soothing,
something wanting affirmation, not disposal,
something I can lift to be redeemed

In the simple, sweet, and peaceful way
of all redemption,
in the way of
“ask, and you receive.”

©Wendy Mulhern
June 20, 2017