#inspired by e

“it will always be like this,

each of us going on

in our inexplicable ways

building the universe.”

From “Song of the Builders” by Mary Oliver

Little and loving, entirely trusting,

I make the lines and you color them in,

thank me with a kiss, and

it will always be like this,

if I rehash the past, that is.

The truth is sadder but lovelier.

Paths are still being drawn,

each of us going on,

finding ourselves further apart

than we’ve ever strayed,

following instincts and hearts

in our inexplicable ways.

But as you grow up and away

my world expands too;

I won’t live in reverse while you’re

building the universe.

They sit on his grandmother’s bed. Costume jewelry is missorted between them, and a golden chain shines in the mother’s hand. “Look at this one,” she says, and offers it to her boy on plated palm. He reaches for it and she is struck—

by the deliberation in his tiny fingers.

His touch is the lightest thing upon her skin as he carefully pinches, cups the bracelet like a precious thing, and studies it with new and newly comprehending eyes. Her gaze turns to blinks, and she thinks that he has never seemed so real before—so alive that his mind is a tangible thing, and so very separate from herself.

When life’s battles near

I’ll wrap you in my armor,

shield you with my love.

In the gentle sun

your freckles bloom before the

mulberry trees wake.

curled over work like

a comma

but no pause for breath