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