#free form

on dragonback, breathing fire. 

There was no mistaking it. 

I was drafted into war. 

Then, it came softly. 

I didn’t recognize it at first: 

A cup of tea in its hands, 

Draped in perpetual golden hour

The table surrounded by your loved ones who went before

A platter of hot cinnamon rolls waits for you

And hot coffee that never cools.

Mind full of ideas and fingers guiding a pen across endless pages

Mind full of exhaustion and fingers tickling little tummies and toes

I'm a mom but I used to be a writer

Unending plots and scenarios exchanged for unending diaper changes and giggles

Bringing life to characters on blank pages

An illustration of a sizable minimalist backyard with stamped concrete and a specially designed hot tub

You come into existence with a profound sense of greed.

You're not a wolf among sheep, not quite.

Even if that predator were to don the pure-white hide of the flock, its teeth would give it away, yellow and sharp.

You are far more insidious, a talkative student in a library, among other students.

Before you know it, you have multiplied, and now everyone is talking in this once-still place of scholarship.

Is my body a place of learning? Yes, surely.

Billions of chemical reactions, the beauty and complexity of cellular function, catalyzed in the medium of life.