How do you ignite a flame on a wet wick?
How do you paint a world of color with invisible ink?
How do you open up new worlds of imagination to eyes screwed shut?
How do you sing the songs of Solomon to ears deaf to all but white noise?
How do you match the rhythm of feet too hesitant for dirty dancing?
How do you share the taste of raindrops on your tongue with a soul steeped in propriety?
How do you describe the shades of grey to a life robed in black and white?
How do you embrace the whimsy of the world with a mind bereft of hungry questions?
How do you quench your thirst for passion in a valley strewn with dry bones?
How do you shrink to pass through a half-open door leading to a shadowy unknown?
How do you stay rooted in a land that consumes all yet yields null?
How do you solve a scientific equation that revels in its insolubility?
How do you scale the barbed wire fence of an impenetrable psyche?
How do you fall in love with a heart that won’t fall in love?
You don’t.
You throw up your white flag and throw down your armor…
You fan your embers to keep your flames glowing…
You splash bolder hues on your canvas and live in unrulier colors…
You seek out new rabbit holes and discover love songs in the silence…
You crank up the music, making the dance even dirtier…
You chase after questions with easy answers that fill you up with balloons of joy…
You dig new wells and you fling open all the doors to let the light in…
You stretch and stretch and stretch until you take up all the space…
You build your garden, its fence just a hop and skip over…
You keep having the time of your life, even when you’re not…
And then…
One day, you’ll turn and find, oh, another soul pulsing with the same frequency as yours,
And they’ll go…
You too?
You’ll behold them in wonder—it’s like looking in a mirror—and you’ll see…
…a burning wick, fingers stained with paint, eyes wide open, ears attuned, feet tapping to the rhythm of an unheard melody, hair drenched from running after raindrops, soul draped in a rainbow, body and mind thirsting for more, simple math, no closed doors, only open windows pointing to beautiful unknowns, no fences, no walls, reckless passion spilling everywhere, a heart unbound…
Here, there’s nothing for you to do and everything for you to be.
So you’ll smile in response,
Me too!
You know how this one ends, don’t you?
You do.
© Lara Brown, 2024
Photo by Lara Brown, 2023
Written overnight, inspired by one of my all-time favorite movies, The Sound of Music, only unlike the dear Captain von Trapp, the stuffy figure in the opening stanza is averse to being unstuffed. I never want to be the nuns chastising the problem that is Maria. Instead, I want to remain, like Maria, the moonbeam you can’t hold in your hands.
Worlds via Words 