first day of the new year

ellen orleans

Second actually
but new enough for me.
Long weekend this year.
       Good to slow down (so they say)
three full days to putter  ponder  ruminate
drop

Three full days to notice spots
in clothes hung to dry, scratches
on the antique desk, rents and rips
in the soft garment of skin. In lungs,
and chest. Clever
how I didn’t notice
all these months. Pesky,
how they cleave.

“Feel life’s pain,” they advise. “The only way
to move through it.”
I have my doubts and besides, anyone
who speaks with such certainty is
not to be believed.

What else is there to do but set out on foot?
Climb Mount Sanitas, long ago home
to a sanitarium which cured no one.
Hike its stone steps, follow
the black dog, ragged stick too big for its mouth.

offering

left in a church
the hat
arrives in a box
she puts it on and remembers
who she was