JOURNEY TO THIS PLACE

I have seen the stars dimmed
By the brightest desert moon
Alight playfully surfing hilltops of barren dunes
Where I pulled curbside my idling car
Gifted by an ill man trapped in a wall
painted with a rainbow blue and purple star
And felt the world's expression of dinned

SILENCE

As though soft hands cupped my ears
So I could hear only my heart
My breath
The small rocks as I shifted

I slept coldly but comforted
With my child wrapped
And two sweet small mute friends
Who sat patiently by my side
At the edge of the majesty of the canyon
Where oranges and apples are merely sweet fruits
Of pulp, flesh, and nourishment
Where colors boldly whisper nothing but their marvel
And numbers, animals, and the playing games
Do not follow

Here lay back with the sweetest comfort
In the cradle of the real world I returned
On this path I have touched
An understanding
Of time and life
To reach across the stars
And all that has been denied
As a woman, as a discoverer, an artist
Breaks as the light on the canyon walls
And I am here to be found
I am here
I am there
And so is she
As we are
As you who hold softly this page
The journey now drifted your way

This path has been traveled alone
With my many strange names called by some
I come here to begin living
Unfurled it all drifts
From my open hands
And woman am left standing
At the beginning

by Chantall Çollet