How long have you watched from distant shore
and willed me to greet this morning with a feathered smile?

For as long as you’ve called into the thick fog,
I have longed to leap from bog of murky circumstance.

~ ~ ~

How long might you have imagined the sound
of my voice rising from within the swells cresting in my heart?

For as long as you’ve dreamed dreams forgotten,
my soul has strained to remember its safety with you.

~ ~ ~

How long have I floundered, slowly sinking,
mired in replicated thoughts of trauma, afraid to trust you?

For as long as I’ve glimpsed poetic rays of light
or tasted hope in words floated out to me in colored bottles?

~ ~ ~

How long might I have known, deep inside the storm,
that yours is a presence of spirit, the centered eye of calm?

For as long as I’ve allowed my heart to risk pain
of watching you disappear, I've been, am being, born anew.