BEGIN (ELUL 25)


Of course it isn't easy.
You'll wobble on your feet
like an unsteady calf.
Colors will taste different.

Old comforts will be strange.
Everyone you thought you knew
will look unfamiliar
through your remade eyes.

Dreaming, you'll mutter
in the oldest language.
And what kind of person
are you this time around?

Do you take the door
or leap out the window, wear
tweed or stripes or basic black?
Who do you think you are?

After coming through
these golden days
your skin will be tender
and your heart afire.

It's all right to be afraid.
You're not alone; never that.
Look for the messages
you set afloat in bottles

in your former life
drifting and bobbing
across the endless stars
to find you on this shore.

I'm participating again this year in #blogElul, an internet-wide carnival of themed posts aimed at waking the heart and soul before the Days of Awe. (Organized by Ima Bima.) You can read last year's and this year's #blogElul posts via the Elul tag; last year's posts are also available, lightly revised, in the print chapbook Elul Reflections.