Remember

Remember how love first bruised 
the hard stone of your heart, 
how it tugged at your sleeve 
like an excited child showing off 
his latest treasure?  

Remember how the pit of your stomach gave way 
with a start and you trembled, as if you would disappear 
forever in its fluttering? 

Remember how your eyes grew wide with wonder, 
consuming the world so wholly and so completely
that the taste of it rang through the limits of your body? 

Remember when you were the tinder and the kindling and the spark 
igniting the fire within, how that blaze burned bright, 
how Winter fled for a moment and Spring became your only season?

Remember these things now.

Let the absence you feel fill the chambers of your silent heart, 
and if it should burst, let the echo that remains be what builds 
the world anew.
           
Be the stone that melts in the fire, 
the steam that rises from the ash.

Float freely until the heaviness of each memory overwhelms you 
and once again you fall, as rain upon the earth, 
into a life ready to receive you.

© Paul Wittenberger, Substack, September 2023