By tether unfrayed
this stalwart connection lives
still, on and on, still!
The author and site owner can be reached at leeundercedartrees@gmail.com.
By tether unfrayed
this stalwart connection lives
still, on and on, still!
They travel together
All within reach of each other, never wandering far
Taking their turns
One then the other then the other
For decades
Simultaneously hating and guarding each other
Sleep feels far tonight
I owe such apologies
But can’t find the words
Night air in late spring
My thoughts drift to nearby friends
Now feeling so far
For you who’ll walk with me when I’m in need
Seeing in me what is invisible to the eye
Who, when I drop
Pieces of me in the grass
Will gently place them back into my fumbling hands
…
There’s a kind of love for our first kin
Universally defensible, globally understood
Truly unconditional
There’s another for those we find briefly
For months or years
Sharing our space and time
Where captivations intersect
Yet another is reserved for so few
Bearing rings and keys
Sharing bathrooms and kitchens and beds
…
Their memories are vague concepts to me.
Myself, who never knew their fields:
I can only catch glimpses from a distance,
aided by stories told across chasms of time
and left written in the sand when the empathy tides recede
on memory shores.
…
I killed an insect on my desk this afternoon.
I’m not sure what it was, but it was probably harmless.
I could have put it outside.
I could have gently shooed it somewhere else.
But, I didn’t.
I crushed it, with a tissue, so I wouldn’t dirty my fingers.
Now the stink of death lingers in the room,
and I wonder where my heart’s gone.
.
June 4, 2025
The savage and I are at odds again today.
But, today, I’m not pacifying it. I refuse to play by its rules.
I will not coddle it, cuddle it, kiss it on its forehead today.
Today I resist. I argue. I rail against its every move.
.
June 3, 2025
What is this pervasiveness?
What is this system of patterns
These loops both logical and non?
…