You Are Needed

The world lay sprawled before her, there,

and there, careless as a yawn,

but she could not look ahead.

The past kept strolling by,

catching her up like wires bound

 to fenceposts of strife.

“You

are needed,

a voice, your hands

two eyes, even the nose you despise”

sang the sand under

her feet, called the frogs, cried

the old ones nearly empty

with dementia.

She was sure the Earth had fallen away

from the hem of her feet, but

she did not realize

it flowed back together behind her in unity,

holding her up all along.

And that moment, her voice—

ah, but her true voice, 

her tomorrow eyes 

there, and there... 


And the world,

it made ready

to listen and to be seen.

J. Pratt-Walter, 10/2/2016