Trying to Focus on the Ceiling Up Close in the Half Light
\nBy
\nJennifer Angelina Petro<\/p>\n
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\nLooking up takes practice.
\nOne doesn\u2019t focus the eyes
\nSo easily right off the bat,
\nYour eyes fight straining
\nSo they don\u2019t go all crisscross.
\nGive in to the white space however
\nAnd all manner of things emerge.
\nYou begin to see colors,
\nAnd shapes assemble, and feelings
\nOf possibility and anticipation
\nSlowly build in your mind
\nUntil finally you’ve fashioned a dream
\nTo live in all day every day.
\nOf course your eyes eventually do go crisscross
\nAnd everything begins to blur,
\nAnd you wonder how long you\u2019ve been
\nStaring at a ceiling so close to your face,
\nAnd then you wonder how you got up there,
\nAnd then you look down and just make out
\nYour assigned form lying there sleeping with blankets half off
\nRevealing just how frighteningly vulnerable
\nWe all are when surrendered to the dark waves of living unconsciously,
\nAnd shivers run through you,
\nFor you are doing just that up here
\nAnd everywhere you go,
\nAnd so you snip the chord
\nBinding you to that body
\nWhich sends you fluttering through the ceiling, the attic,
\nAnd out into the cold, January night,
\nAnd you wonder why it is so windless,
\nAnd you wonder why you are so tissue-thin
\nWhen you feel so full,
\nAnd you wonder what unseen currents
\nAre bearing you, and you wonder where
\nAnd when it will end, and what your final form will look like
\nWhen you land in the arms of the moon.
\nAnd when she turns you over to kiss your face
\nAnd swathe you in caresses of light, you will wonder why
\nYou ever waited so long to filter through the boundaries of your life
\nAnd become your fiercely awake and joy-receptive self.<\/p>\n
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