Trauma is a Tangled up Thing SEP 2023 All at once and all together Our heartbeats were racing And every hair was standing on end As we froze to catch up with the questions bursting into the kitchen With the slap of a pet door and Skittering claws on the plank floorboards: What happened, is the rabbit OK, Where's the new kitten? was it The new kitten who's fur is flying And is there blood or feathers? It's just us now, or always was– Wait, shhh, wait and see if there will be blood… I am up out of my chair Now crouched down reaching under Other chairs to grasp for clues And try to comfort these companion animals, alternating predator and prey Who we have told and scolded That they are now sisters, Our babies– Oh Lord let them be OK Let me be OK We need to be OK Because we are each of us so fragile And this equilibrium peace Is all we can hold on to Right now The questions are too many and too heavy The answers are too few and too far There is no making sense of
"...And, after all, isn't that what life is all about, the ability to go around back and come up inside other people's heads to look out at the damned fool miracle and say: oh, so that's how you see it!? Well, now, I must remember that. Here is my celebration, then, of death as well as life, dark as well as light, old as well as young, smart and dumb combined, sheer joy as well as complete terror ..." -- Ray Bradbury