Trails to Hike

Trails to Hike

For all my friends who struggle with anxiety.

(“We have patrolled the earth, and lo, the whole earth remains at peace.” Zechariah 1:11b)

Does your heart race like mine,
thoughts turn somersaults and rhymes play
on repeat (songs or snippets, along the pathway
that tears have inscribed)?

There are trails to hike today,
kittens to play today,
loves and friends, close and
too far away today.
There is sky and sun
and one who vows to
never betray a single confidence.

Our senses are filled, aren’t they?
Our loves stilled upon the water that echoes the sun.
Our hopes are stunted, some have flown away.
But still the breath fills us; still one song can still us
(do you remember that one that played when we
sat unswayed by our fears and agonies?)

Does your heart hurt like mine,
tears come from nowhere, but we know where
they started; somewhere when an arrow pierced
our tender youth (we died, but continued living.)

That pierced place we hide has made our lives
fall like water on the kitchen floor. Sometimes
we wonder
when will it stop, what is it for?
When I see your tears, hear them leaking,
all I know, there is another like me,
another aching, seeking, looking for
a day on the beach that feels like
a lifetime promised by the waves meeting
the shore.