it is triggered before consciousness
gets out of bed for coffee
and energy becomes lodged in the heart
a thorn still lying deep in the tissue
and i go down fall into decades of weight
thick mud sucking on my feet tugging me
toward familiar dark enveloping safety

i sleep uncaring divested of emotion
float in this familiar womb apart
undeveloped in the musings of thought

without touch there is nothing to miss
without air there is no breath to follow

but the one who sees this one who suffers
peers above to witness a wheeling circle of redtail hawks
lift from swaying treetops into the morning sun she sees and soars within my heart,
her power is absolute, she is infused with the fire
of indomitable life sensuously fragrancing the breezes

and with her loving kiss the spell is broken
all around evidence abounds that it is gone
there is a song the catbird just learned
floating about in the billowing air
and we remember that when we listen
always and forever my dear it is here

©John Greenleaf-Maple 6/9/17