Do you know why, the leaves tip-toeing across the sidewalk square know your name?
I’ll tell you now, you’ve never met.
I think that they heard
I think that they heard,
When I politely asked the world to stop spinning.
Just so for a moment
We could turn ourselves back around
Grasp our hands together
Look up and tell the stars, “I’m ready.”
The leaves know your name because the trees speak silence in the same language as us.
I don’t know how to ask you
If you are afraid, that when the world starts spinning again…
We may just float away?
I won’t let you float away.
I will dig my heels into the soil beneath our souls
I will tie the big dipper around my waist and anchor it to the trunks of the trees
I will tell gravity to stop panicking and just let go
Gather the constellations and planets
On the tail end of an inhalation
Allow the breadth of the galaxies to rise with the lungs of a sleeping dreamer's chest,
Just breathe.