To Linda who knew.
I was once told in a dream that I would meet people who would change me.
Last month my mother explained
that some benefactor is planting
hundreds of roses in front of the house
that she built in place of her old one
which was built by her grandfather and riddled by a sniper
that the world is somehow pinning them both
for choosing life over bullet
my sister told me only last week
as she boarded her plane,
on the night Mars met Earth
that force is the product of mass and acceleration
that all you had to do to be powerful
was to exist and keep moving
Yesterday, as I welcomed the hesitant morning with eyes
half open, I woke up to find
my father, his sketched maps still sprawling
on the dining room table,
having outlived the moon
this afternoon, my friend finally told me
over our hundredth compass conversation
“the world speaks to us,
in a million marvelous ways
epiphany is realization reared by readiness”
I walked out-later as the night set
all the street lights were on
this must be it I thought
the dreams I have:
Are the nights I walk in the dark guided
The light has always been there.