lone dove

Turns out it doesn’t bother me to take that road home anymore!

I don’t feel the need to look in the rear view mirror the whole way home just in case the demons can run faster than a Ram.

I drove by there the other day.

“Bienvenido,” and a lone dove.

Somewhere along the way I took a left turn and wound up high up on a hill

I saw you swimming in the water below me

I offered you a hand but you sank your teeth into my pinky finger.

You bit it off.

I washed it and kept it on ice until I was ready to stitch myself back together.

I spent a long time painting my fingernails.

I spent even longer looking at the scars.

Eventually the pain in my fingertips went away and I saw my hands clean of infection for the first time in quite a while.

Under my fingernails were pieces of dandelion petals and the color blue.

Just below my palms were marks I made years ago, like carvings on an old oak tree.

Much different from letters in hearts with arrows but also very much the same.

I am alive with roots deep within this place we call Earth.

Chunky, meaty roots that twist and writhe like earthworms

They entangle themselves amongst each other soaking up what the soil has to offer them.

Each one has a reason to be watered; each one persists all on it’s own.

Yet, somehow they work together; somehow they fertilize one another.

You tried to dig up almost every one of them with your rusty shovel and your way with words.

Now I am much more observant of my appendages, and I protect them with ferocity.

I am grateful for that, indeed.

I am keeping my hands to myself, my fingers uncrossed.

I don’t care if you want a hug.

It doesn’t bother me to see you cry.

You can live out there all alone with the shadows if you please.

I am alive on purpose and I intend to travel every street the same:

with the same faith that held me when all you could do was bite me.

The same love that licked my gaping wounds until one by one the tattered flesh mended itself.

Things have such a beautiful way of working themselves out, don’t they?

Bienvenido for sure.

I am welcome

to go where I please

If you had any sense in your head you would do the same.