Words of Wisdom

A chalice
of cheap plastic
with peeling gold paint
Beckons me

Folded slips
fortune cookie hearts
On the podium
The sign reads
Words of Wisdom

Squeezing my eyes tight
Until darkness becomes
swimming color
afraid curiosity 
will pry them open

My touch is met
by creamy paper
each one whispering
pick me, pick me
a fingertip brushes along their edges

My wandering fingers
finally capture a slip
The spell is broken
The slip reads: 
"You have something to say, I promise"

After weeks
Spent wedged between pages
Of a random notebook
It flutters to my bedroom floor
defying gravity for just a second
Before kissing the smooth wood

Curious
Glancing at the laptop screen
my own words of wisdom
typed neatly in Arial
to comfort
a fellow young writer

Fate,
or coincidence?
Flying fingers press keys
Forming words of wisdom
I didn't even know I believed

So while we may not know
exactly what we want to say
Yet
We will spend
Everyday of our lives
Figuring it out

It's okay
If it takes a while
Because when we have found
ourselves
our truths

Each word will have been handpicked
From an expansive grove
Of golden fruit
Each one singing
a solitary note

Dripping with nectar
of all flavors
Blood from our souls
That will flow off our tongues
Slip down our throats
And wind their way around our hearts

And together
we will sing
our heart songs
made of caramelized
words of wisdom

amaryllis

CA

YWP Alumni

More by amaryllis

  • Forgotten altars

    You blink and look and stare
    and stare

    As if trying to find the snag in the dream
    the catch in the sweater
    the cards hidden up someone's sleeves

    The meaning of this miracle that tapped you on the elbow
  • You, Tree

    As I sit on this stump and read
    from these pages of your cousin's pulped flesh,
    I burst with the excitement of next year seeing you draped in color,

    You. master of graceful loss.

    You, vessels of wasted breaths,
  • spiraling

    Spiraling odes of love and loss,
    lost pages strewn on the desk and the floor and the eyes and the sky and my limbs,
    each one with a piece of myself I do not want to see anymore.

    what have I created?