... today

lean into it

"lyrics to a song"

she tells me



lean into the wind

lean into the pain

lean into the waves that crash

lean into the disappointment



flip in the air like ravens play with thunderous drafts



i remember how we were

back then

drunk

tying each other up

choking for relief

my skin scarred for a month



i remember how we were

back then

too scared to admit the size of our

love

the size of our

fear(s)



how the ink was about

cover-ups for the past

how the bottles were about

cover-ups for the present

how we leaned away

not

into

tippling back and forth in the backseat of a taxi cab

shouting directions repeatedly

cuz even close to home

we could get so

lost



i think of your message today

in the light of the past

how we once were

and

now are

how my joy leans towards the

love that you have found

and how i now love without

attachment



i think of

a town of 10,000

disappeared

swept away

consumed by the earth in a flash

and the 10,000 times millions more who

find our lives exhumed

to lean towards

not away

from the pain of a world that can do little more than

let out one collective:

sigh



i think of

all that has transpired these days

compared to the past 2 months

and how i know all it is that you run from

and know how the plates of your life

will one day shift you into an upheaval

to bring you back to your

soul

to bring you back to

leaning towards

the winds

the waves

the pain of your past



i think of

who we were just winters ago

my first winter here

how mountains may crumble

and the earth may slip into the sea

but we stand here today

leaning forward

hands clasped

and joined

by a shared

time of

yesterdays



i think of

the letters i would like to

write to you

so that you understand that we have peace

but instead

for now

i trust the wind

to carry to you

in the form of ravens tumbling joyously in flight

the words that (i) compose to you each day in my head

of how one day

i will say

"i think of who we were back then"

and we will sing with the song that is still being written

that



the past is the past

and we stand here today

joined by what was once shared

and though the very planet itself

can swallow us whole in one violent shake

we have so much to live and

lean

in

to



-- kim thompson. mon 14 mar '11 seoul. s.korea