I’m learning how to experience joy without
my broken heart fearing that the experience will be taken from me before I can feel it fully
To feel the elation without it immediately triggering tears of mourning
It’s difficult and beautiful learning how to become whole again
-gws
The cell was sparse
Florescent lights
Sleeping platform
Stainless steel toilet and sink
But the walls
They were covered in other people's stories
The wall above the cot had been decorated in crayon
A large, pink pointe shoe
Someone's broken dream on display
Doodles and hash marks
A newspaper clipping of a local sports team's championship win
So many names so the walls would recall their existence
So the next inmates had connection to the ones who came before
I sat alone with their ghosts
Waiting for my turn to leave part of myself behind
-gws
There was a girl who was friends with God
The girl was told God was a man in white robes
But her God was a woman in a soft blue dress
Who let the girl sleep protected in her arms
Just the same as she held her own son
-gws
We may not be a match in this life, but damn, does your soul see mine as if it always has.
-gws
How do you never wonder
Why the mirror never
Reflects your own face
-gws
Dear sister
I see you
How your heart is bleeding
How your soul is aching
You are transforming
Becoming so much more
Than you imagined you were or could be
You are becoming a diamond
Under all of the pressure
One worthy to be the center piece
Of your own glorious crown
I can't wait to see how you shine
-gws
Glass on asphalt
Making a mosaic
Of the mundane world
-gws
I need to unlearn your touch
The sound of your breathing
Next to me in the dark
I need to unlearn a lifetime
Of everything about you
-gws
She dressed for the night
Draped in shadows and silver
Making friends with the darkness
-gws
Holding hands in matching rockers
Laughing about when we were young
You reminiscing about record stores and ska shows
As I tell our grandchildren tales of magic
Spending our sunset days in loving conversations
Each other's best bestie
Strolling into the ever after that follows the happily
-gws
