Breathe, darling,
This is just a chapter.
It’s not our whole story.
—S.C. Lourie

And given that it’s just a chapter,
you are free to close the book
of you for a bit,

take a break for now to,
yes, breathe. And while you’re
inhaling and exhaling,

maybe lace up your walking shoes
and take the book of you outdoors
to walk in the world,

pull the breezes into your pages,
illustrate them with the first daisies
of early spring winking like stars

in fresh grass. Sprinkle a bit
of birdsong in there, too. But know
that the book of you is still a draft—

and a good draft it is—though
there’s so much more to be written.
This chapter may well be thick

with gray, heavy with sorrow,
but that doesn’t make it the end.
By no means is this the end.

•••

(for Lisa Morgan… happy birthday!)