we are here for each other (audio poetry 2:12)

Dara-Herman-Zierlein
“The Many Hands of Faith” by Dara Herman Zierlein was part of the Massachusetts Office on Disability “Breaking Barriers” Art Exhibit in 2017.

I wrote this piece in 2013 and have posted it here several times.
Full title is I Suppose We Are Here For Each Other.

I suppose I am here for you,
to hold your hand in mine
and in the other, an outstretched lantern
penetrates a narrow causeway

And so gingerly together we take each step,
toes probing the darkness
anticipating a slipslide of all we believe is solid
all that we believe will lift us out of the muck
and into the miraculous,
all that we believe

I suppose you are here for me,
to fill the bellows of my heart
breathe lightly into crannies
where disappointments of the past
once chose to dwell

And so we cast away our shards of trepidation,
link arms in delicate solidarity
look deeply and find each other aglow
with a searching radiance,
smell in each other
the ripening muscularity of goodness,
realize anew that unity trumps illusion

I suppose in every pair of eyes,
a thousand glimmering mirrors rest
and in the worn and weary faces of dispossession
love’s noble journey begins

And so we make our way through the steaming imbroglio
that so often impersonates the imagined life,
letting go of all we once believed intractable
all that our knowing hearts yielded to eyes
that only now recognize
all that is now all this

We will never again be quite the same,
you, me, every pair of eyes
it befits one to give and receive, I suppose,
golden cups have now been placed
in waiting hands

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