with my ear to the carpet
the cathartic words
emanated from his lips
the drumbeat heavy on my skin.
wrapped in blankets
that couldn’t keep me warm
i played the tunes
time after tenuous time.
my mother came in
stood in the kitchen
dishing up the pasta
singing right along.
she never noticed
the untouched plate
the hours on the couch
or the music that i couldn’t turn off.
i stand here now
wrapped in winter coat
that can’t keep me warm
and remember the heartbreak cold.
catch me a moon once meant
fix my broken heart
(at sixteen, when in pieces
my heart’s only remedy were
the silver splashes of light)
catch me a moon now means
give me a moment
(a moment to myself, to bike,
to run, to remedy stress
with silver splashes of light)
catch me a moon was a story
I wrote (and memorized,
reciting its words as I tackled
giant hills on my way to school
under silver splashes of light)
catch me a moon is a poem
I write (holding my mended heart
as I rediscover the well-lit path
that will carry me—carry all of us—
as we reach for silver splashes of light.
Step Write Up 