Angel Speak<\/p>\n
By<\/p>\n
Jennifer Angelina Petro<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Every night, a friend<\/p>\n
Comes to talk with me,<\/p>\n
Carrying word of faraway<\/p>\n
And intimately near places.<\/p>\n
Sometimes she talks,<\/p>\n
Animatedly, with an urgency<\/p>\n
Known only to those with important news,<\/p>\n
Sometimes she talks<\/p>\n
In gently bobbing waves of psychedelia,<\/p>\n
Which carry me on their drifting<\/p>\n
Clouds to the shores of morning.<\/p>\n
Sometimes she chases me<\/p>\n
Without a word\u2014just pursuing me<\/p>\n
As if I were quarry, sometimes<\/p>\n
She drops me, plunging me<\/p>\n
Into the day, sweating and panicked.<\/p>\n
Even when she appears sinister,<\/p>\n
I have come to know she simply wants<\/p>\n
To send messages from the soul.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And every morning, I wake<\/p>\n
And forget everything<\/p>\n
She said.\u00a0 Well, some of it<\/p>\n
Lingers for a few moments, like<\/p>\n
The scent of honeysuckle in spring;<\/p>\n
But eventually, as I dress,<\/p>\n
And rustle papers and books,<\/p>\n
It fades, or lifts, or blows,<\/p>\n
Or flies, or runs<\/p>\n
Away.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I think sometimes<\/p>\n
What if she ached to be known,<\/p>\n
To be heard, to be validated, seen?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
What if she simply wanted<\/p>\n
To be there, like<\/p>\n
An angel by the riverside.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Indeed, what if<\/p>\n
All dreams were flocks of angels<\/p>\n
Forming grand gestures and landscapes<\/p>\n
Of secrets intent on revelation?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
What if she was trying<\/p>\n
To tell me she needed help<\/p>\n
Or that the spiritual world<\/p>\n
Was in trouble?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
What if she was trying to tell me<\/p>\n
That it\u2019s time, as I sleep<\/p>\n
Through my day,<\/p>\n
To wake up and start singing?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n