Tears pooling inside to form familiar
lakes of sorrow, I fell asleep yesterday.

Hollow and filling up with the debris
of yesterday’s storm, I could not breathe.
And so I allowed all that remained of me
to drift through the refuse, a reminder
of what once was beautiful.

My soul still screaming, I lost my voice.
I closed my eyes.

Weary from wanting to be found by the essence
of hope, to know one and be known by one,
to be embraced and cherished
and wrapped in wings
at last,

I just let go
and surrendered to the storm that raged around me.

I quit seeking shelter
and looked no more for you who have heard my cry
and say you are coming, I will be fine, look
for God’s helicopter.

I just let go
and became the starless night, scared and silent.

I no longer grieved
the absence of someone who might simply stand
alongside me as the waters rose nor did I wish
for heaven’s rescue.

I just let go
and stood, small against the driving rains inside my life.

Sleep entered into me, and I thought it would be
the final curtain. But in dreams, a wordless explorer
came to me to investigate the damage and rouse
the wounded survivor in me.

I might have screamed at him delirious with the rage
of having been forgotten, discarded like yesterday’s trash.
I might have refused to hear him.
Or let the echo of his spirit usher me into oblivion.

But I just let go
and let the sweet salve of his presence in any world at all
wash over a landscape of shattered possibility.

I just let go
and let the wordless explorer pick me up
and carry me home to the self ripped beyond recognition
by unfavorable winds.

I just let go
and began to breathe
again.