Coming Up Into the Light
Julie Williams
You can only hunker down so long & then the wind dies
or rushes on to some other place to do its damage
& all that time you've been huddled there together
holding your breath, hoping against
wildest hope that up aboveground
nothing you love has been
blown away
hoping with a deep longing
the wind has cleared
the air &
the new
light
shining
is
there
to
stay
Two quail ran across the road this morning on the way to work. I slammed on the brakes and my purse and the books on the passenger seat flew onto the floor. I was certain I had hit at least one of the fowl, but both quail were safe on the sidewalk, curled head feathers bobbing.
With the last few poems I've chosen, I see a theme emerging.
"Quail" will come out of nowhere. Sometimes you have to slam on the brakes to avoid disaster. Sometimes you just have to keep going and look at the wreckage in the rear view window. Sometimes you just have to tell yourself that the sun is here to stay, and make yourself believe it, knowing full well a cloud is darkening on the horizon.
It doesn't really matter. The storm will come. But the sun will eventually shine again.
The sun will come up tomorrow, come what may.
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