Rocking
ROCKING
———————————-
Perhaps near you, too? Or
You may have a memory
Of a one separate soul
To the side —
Young and staring ahead,
Or an elderly life
Over by the windowed wall,
Just beyond the group —
Rocking
…Not to any evident music; nor
In a chair made for rocking; or, perhaps,
Out on a porch’s wooden step; or maybe
Sitting cross-legged nearby on the floor;
Or away, almost unseen
In a field of tall grass graced with sun;
Rocking
Immediately there on the edge
Of a kitchen chair, rocking
As constantly as breathing
In and out…
Not listening to the conversation?
Thus, not caring, it seems, about us!
Going on, on, gathering company
From the tempo of rocking
An interior transport
To some degree of comfort, which
(If we knew) we might
Envy…
But!
(How, surely…impolite!)
Right there! In our including
Space, so out of place!
As maddening as
someone standing
To crayon doodles
On the chapel wall!
Recalling rocking:
The bright, lovely girl who did this
Rocking, everywhere, even
With her thumb in her mouth,
Up to age 12. Oh, my!
While adults kept snapping,
“You’re not a Tot! Stop it!”
At her from outside the motion
Of her inner pendulum,
In the rhythm of
The seeking and keeping
Peace…The ebbing and flowing of
Peace…balancing gravity
With hip-tipping inertia
That keeps the rocking working
On the aching, the trials, the noise…
Rocking, so like
Swimming the channel distance
Of the hours spent between
Here and There. Of night. Of day.
Yet, to keep the dreams pouring forth
…Rolling in while even awake…
To refresh
As with the quenching
Power of Eucharistic wine
For heaven’s flights within.
Rocking centers the pulse;
Clears thought;
Calls on the soul; and may
Find life inside lulling,
To sing then string
All the collected moments into
A crystal necklace of
Too rare calm.
———————————————————-
12/12/21. (c) sally young Eslinger
Thanks be to God!
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