Sandra Kolankiewicz ~ What Might Today

Certainly, I admired before I met
you, a per­son who was doing what I
could not imag­ine, and not for yourself
but for oth­ers, the way animals
adopt lost souls of anoth­er species.
Afterwards, I just did not respond when
oth­ers talked, ignored them, learned to put you
into what today ther­a­pists call a
“com­part­ment” for, though you were lost, we still
had to con­verse, see one anoth­er in
the day to day roil­ing and tur­moil, no
use try­ing to pre­tend oth­er­wise. I’ve
been a fry cook in the sum­mer, saving
for col­lege, so I know when something’s too
hot and whether or not the medium
is sour, some oils health­i­er than others,
cur­rent con­ver­sa­tions all about how
to heal inflam­ma­tion. Forget what you’re
think­ing and con­sid­er your joints, the way
they swell in weath­er, how you suddenly
know they exist. If you give up moving
through that pain, you’ll nev­er trav­el again.

 ~

Sandra Kolankiewicz’s poems have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Pudding, Free State Review, 8 Poems, and One.  Turning Inside Out is avail­able through Black Lawrence Press.  The Way You Will Go and Lost in Transition can be found at Finishing Line Press.