Tend (poem)

Tend

Give up your burdens 
Go out into the night barefoot and step into the cool grass
Listen for the sound of your heels in the dirt
Look up for the moon (she’s there)
Count the stars above you and connect the dots

Go back inside but keep the lights off
Sip warm milk and sit in the silence
When you just let it all be, isn’t it
perfect?

Climb into the cool, clean sheets and pull the covers up to your chin
Allow your body to rest
The bed and floor and earth have got you
Like a small child learning to swim, those hands are there and
you
are
buoyant

There are things you can hear in the rustling of the wind through the fall leaves
(if you would just slow down)

Nature has this figured out
A full season is enough to forget who you were then when the summer turned
The heart a tight thing across your chest
The scars of too many disappointments

But bring it back to here, now
Rub your feet with lotion and
Give yourself the tender attention you rage for from others
The need so great, your words falter 
And instead, you wallow and whine

Let the night take you up and in like a deep breath on a crisp morning
That air is what you’ve got now
Your hands tying up your hair and the sun just cresting the mountain
Give up anything else that is weighing you down
and fly