there were long years of waiting.

if you had told me back then

i might not have believed

 

how high and low the waters would flow

how close my steps would come to joy

unbridled–but mostly how many would

dance with pain.

 

those days and months where hearts

bled and sorrow grew, but then again,

so did love.

 

she snuck in there like the first blooms

of spring, shimmering with dew—

every year a wonderment, unexpected.

 

and you would think that pain

would wither, consume fragile hearts

into dust, but no,

 

it was like a secret whispered by source

unexpected that love began to sing,

full throated and free

 

she vocalized. and with each breath grew

until at last i fell in love with all of it,

both the steps that sang and

the ones that wept.

 

for now i am changed, i will never

be the same. if you think about it,

isn’t that the purpose of a journey

 

after all, to end up in a different

and hopefully better place than

where you started?

 

Heather Pound 2024

Photo by Nelli Chaitanya on Unsplash