Simple Thoughts While Baking Bread

We spin, I keep up the pace

my eyes following

The shadow

behind us

I look back at you

You haven’t stopped looking at me

But you haven’t noticed.

We spin

The change in my face, the question in my eyes

What is that?

Should I worry?

Is it here for you? For me?

We dance, you smile, you keep going

My head fully turns, to the shadow

I wonder what it could be

We spin

I squint, I misstep

But I don’t stop

The music is fading

What is that shadow?

Why can’t I stop staring?

What does it want?

I pull away, you hold my wrist but I slip

Out of the sun

Out of the light

Toward the shadow

Into it

Bringing it

In closer to me

What is it?

Warm and barely moving,

Changing shape nearly every moment

It cries it screams it laughs in my arms

My hands

It’s so small

I bring it up close

It’s life

It’s dying

It is what could have been

It’s all I was before

It’s all who I thought I would be

Fading faster into nothing

Fading quietly into something

A memory

A wish

A dream