Merriment. It’s complicated. More often used as a bandage, an analgesic, a ploy to prime a pump, occasionally merriment shifts and manifests as the proper tool to loosen an immovable bolt. This more muscular side of merriment resists being directed. It simply shows up. Then it’s gone. But we are better. Was that you, God?
Pain in the Presence of an Opiate
“…not the negation of pain but rather acknowledging the presence of pain and feeling happiness in spite of it.” ― Lupita Nyong’o
Impossibly broken
where no one else sees the heart
bleeds on
Is that us
my back to you refusing to smile a weeping wound
encrusting every peccadillo The long shadow of offense
walls me off as the old refrain revs up Your hand grabs mine
the world unfurls a twirl the flare of hem
Wait
you didn’t even ask But who would deny
this riotous vibe or guess I could swing a
jitterbug jive slow slow rock-back hip to hip
a sweaty grip the little push & hold
gilt with a cheeky gambol There it is
your hand slips to the small of my back
I’m dipped Oh Lord the whole world swoons
as our wound improves dancing as one
we are won saved
O My God
what have you done a move
I would never do but now all I want to do is be with you
as love dances
with astonishment
A note to the reader: In Susan Cowger’s poetry, extra spaces between words serve as the pauses that punctuation normally provides. Capital letters denote the beginning of a new sentence.
The featured image is courtesy of Julie Jablonski and is used with her kind permission for Cultivating.
Poet and visual artist, Susan attends to image: water, sky, faces, flowers, and birds, oh the birds,
even rocks and pebbles, wherever beauty heals and anoints. Beauty ever provides when life feels
bereft. Susan has traveled to marvelous places worldwide and worked in Kenya with Spring of
Hope International. Now Susan and husband Dana live in Spokane WA. Married 47 years, they
have four children and 22 grandchildren (and yes, she finds that number rather shocking too).
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