Launch

It is with trepidation I launch into this
A memory of the last kiss, a lunch table happening
With some food on the corner of your mouth.
And then you looked like a holocaust survivor
With a baby in your lap, on the verge of your
Eternal birth.

Through the sleep deprived nights
Of holding bottles and a suckling at my breast
I look at all your beautiful innocence
The flavor of morning dew, white doves
In your mind, flying.

She is completely oblivious of the suffering
We hold close to us, Heaven is only
A step away, no,
A whisper and you’re there.

And now between the heartbeats
My mind is constantly attentive to memories
Trying to surface, faces being seen
People trying to relate across a chasm we can no longer cross
Until the end.

And so I launch into it, a cliff diver launch
I go slowly at first and then catch my breath as the air
Pummels my body,
And then
Piercing water, light, dreams, prayers
Bubbling upwards for another breath
Another day to launch off another
Cliff.

J Graser