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 it

Trauma is a tangled up thing.

{ The Heaviest Pen }