Waiting in May

It’s mid-May —

you know what that means;

It’s time for the beginning of

my slow release

when every year the grief cocoon

falls away and I

emerge unceremoniously

dropping to the ground, for I am

no butterfly.

I wish I liked spring but I always

seem to lose it.

That

‘Up-and-at-’em’

Full-steam-ahead

Can-do attitude

leaves me in the dust,

a straggler with an outstretched hand

reaching up as if to say,

“Wait for me!

Please.”

But waiting is not in its nature

(never has been)

and so

I relent

and crawl back

into the waiting arms of seasonal limbo

where I am cradled once more,

shielded from spring’s unrelenting bloom,

praying for the calm

of summer’s sloth

and waiting still

to live.

•

Edited by: Cecilia Innis

Cover Photo Credit: Jasmine LeCount-McClanahan