Please - Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

 If you are one who has practice

meeting the pain of the world,

we need you. Right now we need you

to teach us it is possible to swallow

what is weighty and still be able to rise.

We need you to remind us we can

be furious and scared and near feral

over injustice and still thrill at the taste

of a strawberry, ripe and sweet,

can still meet a stranger and shake

their hand, believing in their humanness.

We need you to show us how

we, too, can fall into the darkest,

unplumbed pit and learn there

a courage and beauty

we could never learn from the light.

If you have drowned in sorrow

and still have somehow found

a way to breathe, please, lead us.

You are the one with the crumbs

we need, the ones we will use to find

our way back to the home of our hearts.