ADVICE FROM MY OLDEST FRIEND, WHO KNOWS ME TOO WELL
by L. N. Allen
“We all have at least one talent* buried in our spirit garden,
like a rusty nail, or the bulb of a forgotten hyacinth
or crocus, or a leafwing chrysalis somehow hardened
into fossil . . . or even a marble that’s been there since
we were twelve-year-olds putting together time capsules . . .
or the heartbeat we skipped when we first met lust,
or the dreamwrench and cloudhammer (borrowed tools,
never used), or the years when we would trust
anyone who said I promise. . . or the promises
we made ourselves and never got around to keeping,
or blind miracles, or the cycloid of a parenthesis
carved by grace to close our time of weeping . . . .
And we tell ourselves they’re fresh as if newly interred,
so there’s no need to hurry. But I tell you, Hurry.”
*When an ounce of gold = $1,200, a Biblical talent = $1,440,000.
Copyright © 2015 by L. N. Allen.